A silhouette of you
by Metope
Summary: Takes place during and after episode 2x12. What if Regina didn't only want Henry back when Cora asked her. What if there was someone else's love too she was desperately longing for?
1. Chapter 1

**Where is she**

"What do you want, Cora?" Rumpelstiltskin asked as he stared at the woman in front of him, standing there in a long dark blue dress which oddly didn't look too weird on her at all, even when they weren't back in their land.

"My daughter." Cora answered. "Where is she?"

Gold laughed. "I'm sorry dearie, but I truly have no idea. I haven't seen her since the town accused her of killing Archie. She seemed genuine however when she said she didn't do it. But, then again, who would frame someone for killing a cricket, so it must have been her, right?" Gold looked at her with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, well. It's a shame you can't help me. I wanted to offer you help in finding your son in exchange, but I clearly overestimated you." Cora said and she pretended to walk to the door of the shop.

"Try the family grave." Gold said. "She just might be hiding in there."

Cora turned around and nodded. "Good." She said. "If she is indeed there, I'll help you in return."

She held out her hand and Gold shook it firmly. "Now, let's seal this deal like we used to." She said with a wicked smile as she closed the space between their faces and softly kissed him. Just like old times.

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"Mom? Mom? Are you in there? Can I come in? Mom?"

Regina quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she thought she'd heard something. Slowly she moved to the door wrapping her coat more around her, she moved her hand past a mirror after which she could see through it. She gasped softly as she saw Henry on the other side of the wall.

Quickly she opened the door for him. "Mom!" He said as he hugged her. She carefully set a step away from him, making sure he wasn't holding her too tight.

"Henry," she sighed. "I'm so glad you came. You have to know, I have nothing to do with what happened to Archie."

"I know." Was all the boy said.

"I'm – someone framed me, and I don't know how or why or – You knew? How?" She asked confused as she realized that what the boy had just said didn't match with how upset he had been when Emma had told him.

"I knew, because I did it." And before her eyes she saw her little boy turn into the woman she feared most.

Quickly she said a step back. "Mother!" She gasped. "You – I thought we stopped you. How did you get through?" As she asked this she forgot to make sure her coat stayed closed, and she immediately knew it had fallen open as her mother's eyes grew wide.

Regina automatically held her hand protectively to her stomach.

"Well as much as I had planned out all of this, I didn't calculate _this_ into my grand scheme of things." Cora said dryly. "You're pregnant." She added, stating the obvious as Regina was about 3 months along and starting to show.

Regina didn't answer; she just stared at her mother, eyes wide and filled with fear as she waited for her mother's next step.

Out of all the things Regina had expected her mother to do, Cora walking towards her and pulling her into a hug hadn't been one of them. "Congratulations my darling. Who is the lucky father, if I may ask?"

Regina shook her head confused. "Uh – you may not ask. How did you get here?" She asked again.

"Determination." Cora now answered. "I needed to tell you that I know why you sent me through the looking glass, and that I know why you wanted to have me killed, and, it's alright."

Regina shook her head again as she felt tears starting to fall from her eyes. "I think it's _not_ alright." She stated.

"Regina, I love you." Cora now said. "And I'm sorry for what I've done. I shouldn't have pushed you away like that. And I should never have mad you marry the king."

Regina closed her eyes as she felt tears sliding down her face. "Go away." She then said. "You framed me for the cricket. You've ruined _everything_ by doing so. Just. Go. Away."

But Cora shook her head. "I'm sorry Regina. I really am. I want to make it up to you."

Regina looked back up at Cora. "Fine, you want to make it up to me? Then follow me, we're going in to town. So you can tell everyone how you _lied_."

Cora nodded in agreement. "And then we can start over again?"

Regina smiled a joyless smile. "I don't see that happening mother. But I am - I was trying so hard, to be a better mother to Henry. And I deserve the same from you, you owe me that."

"For you, anything sweetheart." Was all Cora said as she walked after Regina.

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"These carriages, they're so strange." Cora said with a little smile as she was sitting next to her daughter in Regina's vintage Mercedes.

Regina snorted at the comment.

"Something is irritating me however." Cora said as she looked around her to see what it was. "Ah, look at that." She said as she 'found' the handprint of Henry. "_For Mommy_. How sweet, that used to be you. Luckily you'll have a second chance now." Cora said as she sent her daughter a fake smile.

"_When_, were you in my house." Was all Regina said.

"I haven't had the pleasure yet." Cora lied.

"_That_ was in my house. You think I don't know where that was? It's one of my most treasured possessions." Regina answered coldly.

"Well dear. Letting me confess may give you some points, but as long as Emma and her parents will be around he will never be yours. You don't want their forgiveness. What _is_ it you want?"

Regina sighed. "I want my son back." She said, her voice strangled by the tears she was trying to hold back. But that wasn't all she wanted…there was someone else she longed for, he just didn't feel the same way about her. Not anymore, or maybe he never had.

TBC

**So what did you think? I know it's a little early to tell, because a lot of this was just rewriting yesterday's episode (which, apart from the Rumbelle and Regina/Cora parts really sucked by the way if you'd ask me). I promise Charming will make its appearance soon enough ;).**

**Please R&R**

**X**

**Metope**


	2. Chapter 2

**It's okay**

"We're safe." Emma said as she left the room Greg was in. "He doesn't remember anything."

Snow let out a sigh of relieve. "Good, then we can finally go home now and get some sleep."

Emma nodded. "There isn't anything I want more at this moment than sleep."

"Shouldn't we find Regina first and tell her we know she didn't do it?" David now asked.

"Uh, it's 02:00 AM, don't you think that can wait?" Emma asked. "We don't even know where she is. Come, we're going home." And she started to walk in the direction of the door together with Snow.

David hesitated, he really felt like they should tell her as soon as possible, which was now. It wasn't fair to let her think they all blamed her for Archie's (now fake)-death. She probably felt horrible and awfully alone judging by the look in her eyes he had seen right before she had disappeared, and he felt guilty about that. Besides, with Cora on the loose everything that could make Regina emotionally unstable should be avoided.

"Charming…?" Snow called him at the hospital door. "Are you coming or are you planning on spending the rest of the night in the hospital?" She joked.

He shook his head, to clear his mind, Snow was right, tomorrow morning would be soon enough. "Yes I'm coming." He said as he walked to his wife, put an arm around her and pulled her to him, hugging her a little tighter than he normally did.

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"So. First things first." Cora said as they were both back in Regina's house, Regina sitting on the couch with Cora standing in front of her. "I take it that by how you were trying to hide your pregnancy that you want no one to know about it?"

Regina nodded quietly.

"But darling, why haven't you made it invisible by magic then?" Cora asked surprised.

"I promised Henry not to use magic, mother." She answered with a monotone voice.

Cora noticed and turned to look at her daughter.

"What is it Regina? You don't seem happy it all."

"That's because I'm not." She said in the same voice.

"How come? You shouldn't be so ungrateful. You're having a child, I'm here for you again and soon you'll have your son back too. What's there not to be happy about. But I'll honor the agreement you have with Henry and I'll perform the spell for you instead." Cora said, and with a flick of her wrist Regina's figure turned back to the way it had always been.

Regina looked down at her now flat stomach, she did still feel she was pregnant, one just couldn't see it anymore. She felt tired, so slowly she got off the couch past Cora into the hallway towards the stairs, not saying a word.

However, this caused Cora to lose her patience and the next thing Regina new she was up in the air, the familiar ties wrapped around her body. "I've had enough of this idle behavior of yours. You won't get Henry back like this. You've to fight back, you've done for too long exactly what those Charmings wanted from you, and look what it got you."

Regina still looked free from any emotion. "I'm sorry mother." Was all she said. "I'll try to do better."

This made Cora even more infuriated with her daughter, with a flick of her wrist she let her daughter fall to the ground again.

Regina let out a groan. "C- careful." She whispered.

"What was that dear?" Cora asked.

Regina looked up to her mother, she felt tears stinging in her eyes as she held one hand protectively to her stomach. "I said, careful." She said softly. "Hurt me as much as you want, but, please be careful for my baby."

Cora couldn't help but smile as she finally had gotten an emotion from her daughter.

"But what makes you think I would _want_ to hurt you, dear. I'm merely teaching you a lesson. It's for your own good."

Regina shrugged. "I don't know. It seems all everyone ever does to me is trying to hurt me. Everyone except for D-." She stopped her sentence.

"Don't tell me you're still not over that stable boy Daniel. For god's sake, Regina. It's been over 30 years now!" Cora said angrily, immediately realizing her mistake as she watched her daughter's face turn back to the emotionless state it had been in.

"I wasn't going to say Daniel." She murmured.

"What?" Cora asked.

"Nothing, mother. If you'd excuse me now, I'm feeling terribly tired, so I'm going to rest. I can't think straight like this. I'm no use to anyone now." Regina said.

Her words had the effect she wished they had, as she saw her mother smirk, thinking Regina had finally come to her senses and wanted to fight.

"You can go." Cora said, and she stayed in the hallway till she heard the door of Regina's bedroom being shut.

She was just about to return back to the living room as she heard suppressed sobs coming from her daughter's room. The smile that was still on her face faltered. Regina was depressed, Cora knew, and that wasn't a good thing. All those time when they'd been together, all those times Cora had punished Regina for her actions, had bend her daughter to her will as much as Regina hated it, she'd always had that spark in her eyes, that will to fight, the spark that represented the potential her daughter had. However, she hadn't seen that spark in Regina's eyes now.

She didn't understand, Regina could not be so broken just by Cora's hand. Something else must have happened around the same time, and Cora would bet all her magic and power for it if that something was in fact a someone and the father for the child Regina now was expecting.

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"David. Are you coming? Red told us she picked up Regina's smell and that's she's in her home. We're going there now to tell her about Archie." Snow said.

David looked up from the couch he was lying on to his wife. His wife. Snow was his wife. They were finally together again, of course they were, because they'd always find each other. He smiled at her, although the smile didn't seem as genuine as he wanted it to look.

"I'm coming." He said.

* * *

"Okay. Who wants to do the talking?" Emma asked as she, Snow, Henry and David were standing in front of Regina's house.

"I'll do it." David said. "I – we. We've come to understand each other better during your absence." He explained when Snow looked surprised at him. "She'd rather kill you than talk to you, and she isn't too pleased with Emma at the moment either. So that leaves me."

Emma nodded. "Okay fine." She raised her hand to ring the doorbell as the door already opened. Snow gasped and Emma quickly put Henry behind her as Cora, completely in this modern's world attire probably lend from Regina, opened the door.

"How can I help you?" She asked with the nicest of nice smiles.

"Cora." Was all Snow could say.

"Yes that would be me dear. It's good to see you and your daughter again after our little…confrontation back at our land. But let's not talk about that, why are you here."

"To tell my mom that we were wrong, that she didn't kill Archie, that he is alive and that it was _you_." Henry said as he stepped from behind Emma.

"Henry don't!" Snow said worried.

"Ah you must be Henry." Cora said with that fake smile again. "The boy who hurt my daughter so incredibly much by rejecting her time and time again."

Henry turned red. "Cora, leave Henry out of this." Emma said angrily.

Then they heard the familiar clicking of stiletto's coming from the hallway.

"What are you doing mother?" They heard Regina's voice. The sound of her stiletto's stop as soon as they could see Regina and she could see them.

"O." Was all she said.

Henry freed himself from Emma's grip and ran past Cora as soon as he saw his mother. He threw himself at her and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry mom. I should have believed you like you believed me. You didn't kill Archie."

At first Regina didn't return the hug, too afraid he would feel the bump that was in between them, that her pregnancy wasn't visible didn't mean that it wasn't there. But as soon as she saw Henry didn't notice she slowly wrapped her arms around him.

"It's okay Henry. I understand. I wouldn't believe myself either." She then freed herself from his hug. "It's better that you go back to Emma now, Henry."

He looked at her with confusion in her eyes. "Okay." He then said. "You don't want to talk or anything?"

Regina shook her head. "No, there's no need to. You've said you're sorry, so now you can go on with your life without me holding you back."

"Regina, darling. The boy has said he's sorry. You shouldn't punish him like that." Cora said, she didn't understand what her daughter was doing. The boy had returned to her willingly, it would be so much easier now to get him entirely back, for his loyalty was now still split between her daughter and the Charmings.

"If Henry wants to be here, he can. But if he doesn't, I won't make him." Was all Regina said.

"What's wrong mom?" Henry asked, he suddenly noticed the empty look in her eyes, and the bags that were under it.

"Nothing Henry. I just want you to be happy. That's all that matters." Regina said with a smile that didn't even reach her eyes.

"Henry, I think it's best if you come now." Emma now said. "We've done what we came for. Regina knows we were wrong. And Regina, " Emma now looked past Cora, "We're truly sorry we accused you of killing Archie. I should have trusted you when you said you hadn't done it."

Emma expected Regina to answer with some insulting comment but instead Regina just nodded.

"Ok." Was all she said.

"Well. Alright then, I'm glad you're fine with it." Emma said with just as much confusion in her eyes as Henry had. "Come Henry. We're going home. You've heard Regina, you can come here whenever you want to."

Henry nodded and walked back to Emma.

"Bye then." Emma said again.

"Goodbye dear. We'll most certainly meet again." Cora said sweetly as she closed the door.

"Well, so much for 'I'll do the talking', mister." Emma said angrily to David who hadn't said a word the entire time.

"I'm sorry. I was just so confused." David said.

"Something's wrong." Henry stated. "I've never seen my mom like that."

"I – I've only seen her like this once." Snow said. "It was just after Daniel had died and she had to marry my father while she was still grieving over him. At the time I didn't understand, I asked one of the maids who told me that Regina was depressed."

"We have to get her away from Cora." David said. "If she's indeed depressed that means she is emotionally extremely unstable, I don't want to think what happens if Cora manages to get into her head."

David hadn't even said this as they heard a loud bang coming from the mansion followed by what sounded as a muffled scream.

"I'm going back in." David said and before anyone could stop him he ran back to the house and kicked in the door. He gasped at what he saw.

Cora was holding her hand up, it was surround by purple magic and Regina was pressed against the wall of the hall three meters above the ground, a little bit of blood seeped down her temple.

"What did you think you were doing? You had the boy, he walked to you willingly! Do you think all of this is a silly game? It would have been so much easier to get the boy to your side if he wanted to be here willingly. But instead you push him away. And don't you _dare_ to walk away from me when I'm talking to you _ever_ again!"

"Mom!" Henry had once again escaped his mother's protection and had followed David into the house.

Cora turned around and saw the two Charmings standing in the hallway.

"Let her go, Cora." David growled.

Cora smirked evilly. "As you wish, shepherd." She spat and she lowered her hand as the purple magic disappeared. Immediately Regina fell down to the ground, Henry screamed in fear as she had been up high in the air. However, just as Regina was about to hit the ground she used magic to break her fall and let herself land softly.

David angrily set a step into Cora's direction. Cora immediately raised her hand again and this time it was Henry who got lifted up in the air. "One more step Charming and your grandson will pay." She hissed.

David looked confused from Henry to Cora and then to Regina, on which his eyes rested.

She looked up to him and his heart broke when he saw the pain and the fear in her eyes.

"Go Charming." She said.

"But I can't leave you here with that witch, I –"

"I said _GO_. You don't have to do anything but leave and take your grandson with you. Go NOW!" She now practically yelled with a voice that wasn't as steady as she wanted it to be but had its effect nonetheless.

Charming set a step back, and Cora smirked as she lowered the boy till he was back with his feet on the ground.

"Now do as my daughter said, and leave." She snarled.

David nodded as Henry ran back to him. "This isn't over Cora." He said, anger in his eyes.

"O I know, Charming. It has just begun. You better prepare yourself and your little pathetic family, because hell has yet to come." Cora threatened him.

David just shook his head as he and Henry walked out of the house still facing Cora until she closed the door in their face.

Snow and Emma immediately ran to them. "O my god David, Henry I'm so mad at the two of you right now!" Snow screamed. "What happened?" She then asked.

"Emma, you have to save my mom." Henry now cried into Emma's arms.

"We will kid. We will." She said, but as she looked into David's eyes she knew saving Regina wouldn't go with the same ease as with what she had just made this promise to Henry.

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That night David couldn't sleep so he decided to go for walk, even though it was past midnight. He felt horrible, and he didn't know why. Of course, the events of the day hadn't left him unshaken, but still. He had his family back, he had a daughter, he had a grandson, he had his wife back, and yet, he wasn't happy. He wasn't as happy to see Snow as she clearly was when she saw him. How could that be? Secretly he knew the answer, he just didn't want to admit it. But the truth was, one couldn't have two true loves, there was just one for everyone, and when you saw your true love suffer, that hurt. That hurt almost as much as if it was you who was suffering. And that's why David couldn't sleep, and why he wasn't happy, because he was hurt, for he had seen his true love suffer, he had seen her suffer at the hands of her mother. He had seen how all the desire to live seemed to have disappeared from her eyes. That spark that had always been in her eyes was gone. And all he could do was stand by and watch, for he couldn't do anything about it. He had ruined his chances on being together with her, and now it was too late. It really was a shame she didn't love him back, he thought.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 2:  
__And that's why David couldn't sleep, and why he wasn't happy, because he was hurt, for he had seen his true love suffer, he had seen her suffer at the hands of her mother. He had seen how all the desire to live seemed to have disappeared from her eyes. That spark that had always been in her eyes was gone. And all he could do was stand by and watch, for he couldn't do anything about it. He had ruined his chances on being together with her, and now it was too late. It really was a shame she didn't love him back, he thought._

**I woke up**

_Three months later_

Henry was sitting with his grandparents and Emma in the diner for lunch. It was Saturday and he was trying to make this lunch as long as possible for he would have to start on his homework as soon as they would turn home.

It was a nice day, the diner was pretty crowded and everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

Suddenly the doors of the diner opened and Cora followed by Regina entered the diner.

The diner immediately silenced.

Cora acted not to notice the effect she had on the diner and made her way to the diner.

"Two coffee please." Was all she said to Ruby.

"What do you want Cora." Was all Ruby asked as she warily eyed the witch and her daughter.

"O sorry, I didn't know you only speak English, but that you don't understand it. In what language is it then that I have to tell you I want two coffee?" She asked innocently.

Ruby growled as she violently put two cups of coffee front of the woman causing the coffee to spill. "I'm sorry, I didn't know I had to be so specific with you, I thought you were smart enough to understand, clearly I was wrong. What I mean is, why are you here _now_. We haven't seen both of you for months." Ruby spat back. Practically the entire diner, the Charming family included, hold their breath waiting for Cora's response.

Cora showed a fake smile. "Well, " she said, "first of all, I don't really see why you have to know, or what the problem is. After all, it isn't like we've _harmed_ anyone or anything lately. But, if it eases your mind. Just the two of us all those months got rather lonely, and seen the fact that no one came to visit us, although we specifically told _some_ people here they could…" Henry felt his cheeks turn red at this, but Emma squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, letting him know he didn't have to feel guilty. "..we thought we better go to you, ourselves." Cora finished.

"Oh, yes coming to us will solve that loneliness." Leroy remarked sarcastically. "For we will invite you with open arms to our lives. You two are such pleasant company after all."

If Cora's eyes could kill – and no one was actually quite sure if they could or not – Leroy would have been dead, she didn't say anything however and just took the two cups of coffee from the bar and turned to Regina. "Come dear," she said to her daughter. "Let's go sit over there." and she pointed to a booth that was still free. Regina did nothing but nod and followed her mother to the booth.

The people in the diner watched the two witches sit down and as they reassured themselves the two woman did nothing more – Cora was just softly talking to Regina, who nodded or shook her head in return – they carefully continued with their own business.

"Guys." Emma said. "Did you see how weird Regina was acting?"

" I think that's not too weird after three months with Cora." David said.

"Which is why you should have already freed my mom from there three months ago." Henry said sadly.

Snow sighed. "Henry, we've talked about this. There is no way we can free Regina without risking someone else's but Cora's death. Every possible plan would lead to either your, David's, mine, Emma's or Regina's death. We can't take that risk."

"You don't know if you'll die. Good always wins and you're the good guys, I don't understand why you're not willing to take that risk. The only reason I can come up with why you don't want to do this is because you still don't trust her." Henry now said.

"Well, Henry. You'll have to understand, I do indeed have some issues fully trusting Regina. She's killed my father, she's tried to kill me several times. I'm sorry, but I don't really feel like risking my life or the life of the ones I love for what seems like such a big lost cause."

"I would." David now said absentminded as he was staring at Regina and Cora.

"Yes, we know you want to be the big hero of this story, David." Snow snapped. "But this weird need of you to be the hero all again or something, it has to stop. You're risking everyone's safety with it." Emma Snow snapped, causing Emma to raise an eyebrow at the sudden hostile tone of her mother.

"Well, maybe it's not so much me wanting to be a hero as you having changed." David replied. "Back in our world, nothing could stop us, could stop you from doing the right thing. And as much as you hate Regina, and you have every right to do so, leaving her at the hands of her mother is not doing the right thing."

" We'll just have to be patient and wait until the blue fairy has figured something out." Snow replied stern. "I'm sorry Henry." She added. "Wait where is Henry?" She then asked.

Emma immediately looked around. "Wh- He was just sitting here next to me. How is this even possible? Regina must have had an invisible rope tied around his waist to keep him from running." Emma said frustrated.

"He's talking to Regina and Cora." David said.

"O my god, David, keep an eye on him, if Cora does as much as touch him we get him away from there." Snow said, she and Emma were sitting with their back towards the Mills woman, and turning around would be to obvious.

"Don't worry. Cora's just stood up and went to the bathroom, on purpose I assume." David answered.

* * *

"Mom." Henry said as he walked up to the booth Regina and Cora were in.

Regina slowly looked up from the cup of coffee her eyes had been fixed on.

Before she could say something though, Cora already had an answer ready. "O, look. It worked." She sneered, causing Regina to look down to her coffee again. "He's finally decided to talk to you, dear. Well, I'll let you two talk and go fix my make up or something in the bathroom." And with that she stood up and walked to the bathroom.

Carefully Regina looked back up to see if Henry would be still standing there or that her mother would have scared him off, to her surprise she saw him going to sit down on the place Cora had been sitting.

"Mom." He said again. "I've missed you. Are you okay?"

For a while Regina just stared at him, looked at him, at her beautiful little boy who was now looking at her with such worry in his eyes.

She gave him a little smile. "I've missed you too Henry." She then said in a small voice. "I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me, honey."

But Henry shook his head. "No, you're not alright mom. I don't even recognize you when you're like this. You're not my mom, you're…I don't know who you are now. It's like you've given up." He felt tears were falling down his cheeks now. "It's like you don't even care about anything anymore, not about me, not about yourself. My mom would have never accept _any_one to treat her like Cora does. She would fight back."

"But Henry, " Regina's voice wavered as a tear fell from her eye. "I – I don't know _how_ to stand up to her. I'm complete lost, it isn't all that simple. You think I didn't try to think of a way to get out of there? But if I do she'll come after me, and she'll come after everything I hold dear. Which is you Henry, and that may not be much in number, but you mean so very much to me, I can't risk you being hurt because of me. I – My mother is planning on winning you over to our – her side. And when that happens she wants to take over control of this town, at _any_ cost. If I'll turn on her now she'll definitely do her worst, at least now I can slightly control her actions, warn you if necessary. Do you understand what I'm saying Henry?" Tears were freely flowing by now.

Henry shook his head again. "No I do NOT understand!" He now yelled, causing everyone in the diner to look at the two. "I don't care if I'll be in danger if you try to get away from Cora. Nothing will happen to me, because we're the good ones, and good always wins. You have to trust me on this, just as you trusted me when you brought Snow and Emma back. You cannot let her treat you like this. You think I didn't notice? You think _no one_ noticed how bad your looking? The bags under your eyes, the idle look in your eyes? It's so obvious you're _not_ okay mom. I'm sure she's still torturing you like she did when me and David saw you, isn't she? You, you have to come with us. Now. While Cora is away! You say you love me, but I'm almost doubting that again, because you _know_ that I cannot come to visit you while you're still living with Cora, they won't let me go, although I really want to come. I want to see you, because you're my mom too, and I miss you!" Tears were falling down his face and his face was little red because he felt so angry and frustrated.

Regina just stared at him with a tear stained face. "No Henry. I deserve this. It's the price I have to pay for what I've done. It's fine. I'm sorry that you can't see me, but this way is better for all of us." She practically whispered so the rest of the diner wouldn't hear. "This way, she won't be able to hurt you. I'll find a way to convince my mother you're no longer what I want, so she'll leave you alone. In the meanwhile you have to find Rumpelstiltskin and try to find out how he managed to cross the border. You'll have to make him help you, so everyone can cross and it will be just me and my mother left here in town. That way she won't be able to come after you, and you'll be all safe."

Henry opened his mouth to say something back, but Regina saw Cora coming back from the toilet. "My mother is coming back, you have to go now Henry. I know you don't agree with what I just told you, but please tell it to Emma and to your grandparents. It's important that they find out how Gold managed to cross the border anyways." She said and smiled a sad smile at him. "Go. I love you, Henry." She ruffled his hair and then gave him a gentle push to go.

Reluctantly he stood up and walked back to his family, tears still in his eyes.

"O dear, you're crying in _public_, how unladylike." Cora said disapproving as she went to sit in the booth again.

"I finished my coffee mother, can we go home now? We did what we came for, I talked to Henry and tried to win him over." Regina said, her indifferent mask back in place, the only proof that she had been crying were her red puffy eyes.

"And, did it work?" Cora asked.

Regina shook her head. "No, he just came over to say how much he despised me. That I was embarrassing him by coming here and that he wants us to go and to never come back. " Regina lied. "So, you understand, I would rather go now, because I feel horrible. You can take your coffee with you."

"Well dear, don't get too upset about it. We'll just have to use more force to get him to go with us. Don't worry, I have some thoughts. You did your best, we'll go now." Cora said with her devilish fake smile.

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Regina was just about to go to bed, Cora was already up, as she heard a short ring of her doorbell.

She wasn't too sure if it was a good idea to open the door, but curiosity won over caution so she decided to open the door anyways. She let out a small surprised gasp as she saw David standing on her front porch. He immediately walked past her and walked into the kitchen.

"David, what are you doing." She exclaimed loud enough to make her confusion known but not loud enough to wake up Cora, or so she thought. Regina followed him into the kitchen.

"David, my mother.." She started, panic in her eyes.

"..Is asleep, I've been waiting until I saw the light of her bedroom go off. We need to talk, and we're going to talk now."

"David, I want you to go, what if she'll wake up, I don't know what she'll do then." Regina said, still in the same panicked voice.

David shook his head. "Henry was right. You seem to be totally someone else. If the circumstances would be less serious I'd make a 'who are you and what have you done with Regina Mills'-joke. But unfortunately this isn't the situation to make such jokes. I'm worried about you Regina. We're _all_ worried about you. Snow had some issues trusting you at first, but after she heard what you've told Henry to do she realized how serious this situation is. We have to get you out of here."

Regina turned her head away. "What do you care." She said.

David now set a step into her direction and softly grabbed her chin forcing her to look at him. "What do I care? Of course I care, Regina. Jesus Christ, I care because I love you Regina." He said.

Regina immediately set a step back, forcing David to let go of her. "Shut up." She hissed. "I want you to go. I want you to go right now, and I want you to do as I told Henry and never come back. I've nothing to say to you anymore. What are you _smiling_ at" She added frustrated as she noticed David having a foolish grin on his face.

"It's just, when you said this, I saw something from the old Regina back. Some of that fighting spirit came back, that's one of the many reasons I fell in love with you."

Regina stamped her right foot to the ground in frustration. "You have to _stop_ doing this. You can't _say_ things like that. You're married to Snow. You can't say you love me. It's just hurting me when you do. If you'd really love me you'd leave me alone." She felt tears burning behind her eyes.

David set a few steps in Regina's direction again closing the space between them. "But I do love you, Regina." He said, softly letting his hand slide down her arms. "And I know I screwed up extremely. I should have believed you when you said you didn't kill Archie. And I shouldn't have stayed so long with Snow. I should have told everyone we were together from the start, from the moment the curse broke and I still felt I loved you. But Snow and Emma got sucked into the hat and then you used magic again, and everything got messy and confusing, and Daniel returned. And I just couldn't hurt Snow immediately after she came back, not after she'd been through so much back there. Because, I care for Snow, Regina I – "

"Exactly. " Regina hissed pulling away from his grasp. "You care for Snow, because you love her. She's your true love David! And that means you don't love _me_. Because one simply cannot have _two_ true loves."

"No Regina, you're getting it all wrong." David now said, slightly raising his voice.

"Sssh..Stay quiet, you might wake up my mother." Regina said with wide eyes. Little did she know her mother was eavesdropping at their conversation at that very moment, not believing her ears.

"Sorry. You're getting it all wrong." David now said in a softer tone. "I _care_ about Snow, but I _love_ you. It took me some time to figure this out, to accept this, but that's just because I was stubborn and afraid. In fact I knew it was you all the time, from the moment the curse broke and all I could think of was whether you would be okay. And I understand it if you don't love me, but I'm here to let you know that I won't give up, even if you don't love me back. It was _you_ who woke me up from the sleeping curse, Regina."

Regina's eyes grew wide at his statement. "You – the – I – _I_ woke you up from the curse? But, I don't understand, when I kissed you nothing happened, you were still asleep, even though I did feel the curse-breaking magic radiating from us. It wasn't until Snow kissed you later that day that you really woke up..while there wasn't such a magic sensation then." Regina said confused.

David shook his head. "I pretended to be still asleep after you kissed me. You had your eyes closed when you kissed me, and as soon as I opened mine and saw you I panicked. I had expected it to be Snow. Before that moment we had always told ourselves that what we had was nothing but pure lust, that we were like, each others rebounds. But in that moment I realized what I actually knew for a long time already. That I really love you, and I couldn't deal with it at that moment, so I decided to pretend I was still asleep so I would have some time to make up my mind. But then Snow got back and she kissed me and I had no other choice than to wake up."

Regina let out an unbelieving gasp at this. "O my god. I cannot believe this. I loved you, for a moment I was weak, for a brief moment I thought I could wake you up. But when nothing happened, I knew I had fooled myself. That you didn't love me. Because who can ever love me. The only one that loves me is my mother, after all. And now you're telling me that you _did_ wake up when I kissed you? How on earth – " But Regina didn't get to say another word as David closed the remaining space between them and firmly pressed their lips together.

For a moment Regina allowed him to kiss her but then she pushed him away. "Go away David." She said tears now freely falling. "You have _no_ idea what you've done to me. How much you've hurt me, in what kind of hopeless situation you've brought me. You've done enough. I just need you to go now, I need you to take care of my son and to leave me alone."

"But Regina, don't you understand that – "

"No I _don't _understand, and I don't _want_ to understand. Love is weakness David, I've let it get to me twice now and both times it brought me nothing but misery. So excuse me, but I'd want you to go right now, if not I'll wake my mother up on purpose and she can do with you whatever she wants."

David saw in Regina's eyes that she wasn't kidding, so he nodded. "Okay. If that's what you want I'll go. But know that I'm not giving up on you. I'm going to find a way to get rid of Cora, to make sure you'll be safe again. I'll proof to you that love is not weakness, that it's strength." He said and with that he turned around and left the kitchen. Cora quickly went back up the stairs so she wouldn't be seen by David, not able to use her magic because Regina would notice. Regina waited until she heard the front door slam before she collapsed to the ground, her body shaking because of the sobs that running through her body, she lifted the spell from her body and looked at her now visibly round belly and let her hand rest on her belly as she cried and cried and cried…

Cora hesitated for a while whether she would go down to her daughter to comfort her, pretending like she'd just woken up, but eventually decided she wouldn't. She needed to process what she'd just overheard. There was no doubt now that Prince Charming was the father of Regina's child. Cora felt she was having a hard time controlling the magic built by the rage she felt about this particular fact. The second cause of her inner rage was the fact that Regina had obviously lied to her about what Henry had said to her in the diner. It would be time to pay her old master a visit again, because Regina would pay for this…

**There you go. I'm extremely happy with all the positive reviews I get on this story :P. I hope you liked this chapter, even though it's filled with so much sadness.**

**You'll have to do with this for a few days, for I have an essay that I have to finish before Tuesday (and I may or may not have nothing written yet O:D )**

**Please R&R**

**x**

**Metope**


	4. Chapter 4

**Love is weakness**

"Cora, what an unpleasant surprise." Rumplestiltskin said as he saw Cora entering his shop.

"Well, I can't say I'm very happy to be here either, but yet here I am." Cora answered with a fake smile as she walked to the counter Rumple was standing behind.

"What is it you want, dearie?"

"I want to strike a deal. That is, if you're still willing to take…children?"

Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but look surprised at Cora's statement. "Well, well, Dearie. That depends, what do I get out of it?"

"Well you get the child of course." Cora said.

"What do I need a child for."

"O believe me, you'll want this child. This child is born from true love, although the parents aren't too ready to admit it yet. But that's not all, the parents, especially the mother, has great power. This child will have so much potential. If you'd raise her as your own, as your apprentice, she could do so much for you." Cora said as she set a step closer to her former master.

"And tell me, if the child is so powerful, then why do you want to give her to me? Why can't she be of any use to you?"

"Those are my business." Was all Cora said.

Rumplestiltskin let out one of his infamous giggles. "Well, before I agree dearie, to know whether you speak the truth or not, I'll have to know who the parents of this child are."

"Of course. Our beloved Prince Charming is the father of the child, whereas the mother is…." Cora paused and swallowed visibly. "…my daughter."

A gasp of surprise left the imp's lips. "Well I'm glad I asked, for you must think I'm a fool to believe _that_, dearie."

"It's true." Cora said. "I overheard a conversation between the two tonight. It was Regina who woke up David from his sleep, he just pretended to still be asleep after she did so. My daughter is pregnant six months now. David doesn't know. From what I've heard they've been having an affair since before the curse broke. You can check my memories for it if you want to."

The imp nodded. "That I will do, for memories never lie." He touched Cora's temple with one purple glowing finger which allowed him to see the memory he wanted to see.

When he lowered his arm again he nodded again. "We have a deal. Bring the child to me right after it's born."

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When Cora returned home, she saw Regina was sleeping on the couch. Roughly she woke her daughter up. "Get up. The time of being is nice is over. From now one you're going to do exactly as I say and follow every order." Cora said firm as she pulled her daughter up to stand in front of her.

"What?" Was all Regina could ask, still a little dazed from just awaking.

"I said, you're going to do exactly as I say. No secret plans behind my back anymore. And if you don't your dear Prince Charming won't be living another day." Cora said as she grabbed her daughter by both arms.

Regina's eyes widened. "You heard us.." Was all she said.

Cora nodded. "Yes dear, I've heard everything. From that pathetic peasant confessing his love to you, til you telling them to do 'as you told Henry'. I cannot even start about how disgusting it is you've fallen for a _peasant_, even the stable boy was better. But you've clearly also betrayed me, all because of love. Love for that ungrateful boy and love for that filthy peasant. Love is _weakness_ Regina. I thought you'd learned that by now. So you're going to do exactly what I say, that will be your punishment, and don't even think about going behind my back again, for I _will_ find out, and when I do your dear prince will end the same as your stable boy did."

Tears were streaming down Regina's face by now, she swallowed. "And what is it exactly what you want mother, because, to be honest, I have no clue at all for months now about your motives."

"Well dear, my plan is to bring us back to the top. To make you queen again. We're going to transport us all back to our land, where you can rain as Queen once again. When the time comes we will kill the Charmings, except for the boy, he will be the heir to the throne. The ogre's obey me, so it won't be difficult to rule in the Enchanted Forest." Cora smirked.

"But.." Regina started. "Why do you think I would help you know? You threat to kill David if I won't work with you, but you're planning on killing him anyways. Why shall I help you?"

"O you will help me, because, as long as he is alive you're judgement will be clouded by your weakness, you'll foolishly believe there's still a way out of all of this. And that foolishness I shamelessly use to my advantage."

Cora shook her head. "No, you foolish girl. That way they will still be together. No we're going to tear that family apart, destroy their happiness."

Regina let out a shaky breath. "You're right." She whispered. "I will help you, because we _will_ find a way out of your evil grasp. G- Good will win." She repeated Henry's words.

Cora, clearly not impressed, let out a mocking laugh. "You believe that, sweetheart. It's alright. I'll show you the way once we're back."

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_Flashbacks_

_Regina looked to the sleeping body lying next to her. She felt how panic was taking over her body. What had she done. She hadn't planned to actually __sleep__ with him. She would just have dinner with him, kiss him, then let him go, leave him to his confused thoughts, take it slow. Sleeping with him was most certainly __not__ taking things slow, Regina, she scolded herself. But, then again, how could she have known he was such a great kisser, that he was so eager to kiss her, that he made her feel like she cared, and when those blue eyes looked at her, and as she had felt those strong arms around her she…No no no! Stop it. Get a hold of yourself! _

_She felt him stir beside her. Please don't wake up, she thought as she closed her eyes, I'm not ready to face the consequences yet. But unfortunately as she opened her eyes she one pair of bright blue eyes stared back at her._

"_Hi." He whispered with a smile_

"_Hi." She said back and she couldn't help but smile back, hating herself for it._

_She felt panic overcome her once again as he leaned in to her to kiss her softly on the lips. She felt herself kiss him back, quickly she pulled back. "No no no." She whispered._

"_O. I'm sorry Regina. I just…wanted to thank you for…everything." David stammered. "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."_

_Regina swallowed as she turned herself on her back. "No, you didn't it's just. I'm confused. Did we just make a big mistake?" She asked out loud as she turned her head to look at him._

_David was taken aback by this to him odd behaviour of the usually so put together madam mayor. Now he was looking at a scared woman, her hair was a mess and without make-up on she almost had a kind of innocence to her._

"_I- I don't know. But what I do know is that, last night, I felt amazing. I haven't felt this happy in weeks; I think I haven't felt like this since I woke up. And for that I don't feel sorry, and I don't regret it." _

_Regina let out a shaky breath and she felt how a tear strolled down her face. Before she could wipe it away she felt David's hand on her face brushing the salty tear away._

_She smiled weakly. "Well, I guess you'll be hungry so I'll make us some breakfast." She said as she got up and put her robe on._

* * *

_As soon as Regina opened the door she felt a pair of lips pressed roughly on hers. Quickly she pulled away. "Don't do that." She said, trying to suppress a laugh. "What if someone sees you!"_

"_Well, then they see us." David said as he entered the house. "I don't want to hide this anymore. It's been three weeks now, what's there to hide?"_

_Regina's face contorted into a frown as she shook her head. "No David. We can't. What if the town doesn't appreciate it. I have to think about Henry. He already thinks I'm the Evil Queen, if he finds out the Queen is dating Prince Charming.." She got interrupted by David's lips crashing against hers once again. _

"_Okay, then we won't tell anyone." He said. "But then I do want you to make it up to me right now." He said with a grin as he already made his way upstairs to her bedroom.'_

* * *

_Regina stared at the pregnancy test she was holding with big eyes filled with fear. She was pregnant. After she had thrown up for the fifth time that morning she finally decided to actually use one of the tests she'd bought earlier. She sighed heavily. She would have to tell David, they would have to tell everyone about their relationship. She got snapped out of her thoughts by her phone ringing.  
She felt all blood drain from her face as she heard how Dr. Whale told her Henry was in the hospital at the other side of the line. Emma was there with her, he had said, that meant she didn't eat the turnover…_

* * *

"_It was all a game to you, wasn't it!" David yelled at her, standing in the sheriff's office. Emma had just locked Regina up and David had stayed behind, it had been hard to convince Snow and Emma to leave them alone, but eventually they did._

"_I don't know what you're talking about." Regina said coldly. "Shouldn't you be with your wife and daughter, for some long lost family quality time?"_

_He shook his head. "I can't believe this. All that happened these past two months. It was all an illusion." He stared at her trying to read something into these dark eyes._

_Suddenly her eyes softened as she shook her head. "No." She whispered. "I admit it, initially it was to hurt Snow, but immediately, the day after everything had changed already. I'd never planned to go that far. But when you kissed me I lost all control. And in the days that past I made myself believe that this could work, that it would actually work. That I would have joy in my life for once…" Her voice trailed off and she felt a tear stroll down her face. "I'm sorry." She whispered._

_David just shook his head and walked away._

_As soon as he left Rumplestiltskin walked up to her cell. "What was that about, dearie? You suddenly started to whisper so I couldn't here but I must say I'm rather curious to know what Prince Charming was so upset about._

"_That's none of your concern." Regina snapped, causing an evil grin to show on Rumplestiltskin's face. "O so it do was about something important you two were arguing."_

* * *

"_Where are they!" David yelled at Regina as he looked at the hat that now didn't seem to have any magic in it left._

"_I __don't __ know!" Regina yelled back._

"_You did this. You did all of this! You witch!" David yelled as tears strolled down his face._

_Regina cursed herself as she felt tears falling down her face as well as soon as David called her a witch. _

"_Why are __you__ crying." He asked angrily as he saw the tears fall._

_Immediately Regina's face hardened and she pushed him back with her magic, the tree's on the wallpaper wrapping around his arms and legs._

"_You have no idea of who I am Charming. So don't judge me, I cry when I cry and I kill when I kill. I just cried, so I think I must kill now."_

_But then Henry entered and she immediately loosened her grip on Charming, but as she looked at her son's face she knew she had made a big mistake._

* * *

_Regina felt how she fell to the ground after she had released Daniel from his suffering, unable to keep control of her body. Her body trembled because of her heavy sobbing. Suddenly she felt two strong arms wrapping around her and holding her. She smelled the familiar scent of her Prince Charming; he was whispering soothing words to her. That it was okay to cry, that she'd done the right thing. That he was incredibly proud of her. She didn't know how long they had been sitting in the stables like that, but eventually she felt how he lifted her up and carried her to his van. She was too tired because of all the crying to protest so she let him. In the back of the car Henry was waiting, eyes big with fear and confusion, only growing more concerned when he saw the state his mother was in. She didn't even really react as he asked him what had happened; she just gave him a small half-hearted smile. She fell asleep soon._

_She woke up in her own bed, in David's arms she realised. "You're awake." She heard his voice from behind her._

"_Yes." She said, her voice raspy because of all the crying of the day before. "What are you doing?" She asked confused._

"_Taking care of you." He answered._

"_But why..you hate me..I'm the Evil Queen." Regina whispered._

"_No you're not. And I don't. I don't hate you. You're changing, I can see that, and I think that's great. And what you went through yesterday, I don't wish that to anyone. You're not the Evil Queen anymore Regina, you haven't been the Evil Queen for a long time. You've shown me who you really are, who you can be, and I want to help you bring that woman back. So I'm taking care of you, and right now that means you should not be alone."_

_Regina sighed as she inhaled once again the familiar scent of the prince. 'Love again.' Daniel had said… She'd almost done so.. It was a shame David just cared for her but didn't love her ..didn't love her __back__, she thought._

**I am back ****. I finished my essay, so I first update my fanfiction Two More Steps, and now this one :D. I hope you liked it, please read and review..for I'm not too sure if I should continue this fanfiction…? (And I have loads of other ideas I'm dying to explore :P).**

**R&R!**

**xMetope**


	5. Chapter 5

_**I'm sorry**_

_Two months later_

"Hey, Snow. How are you?" Red asked as Snow entered the diner; it was just an invite to start a conversation, because Red could see perfectly well how Snow was doing by the bags under her eyes and the paleness of her already usually so pale skin.

Snow gave a half-hearted smile as she went to sit at the bar. "I'm doing okay. I just..it's difficult. And I'm afraid _all _the time."

Ruby took Snow's hands in hers and squeezed them reassuringly. "They'll be fine. Emma and Henry, they'll be fine. Clearly Gold needs Emma's help, so he won't hurt her, and now Henry is with them, he won't hurt Henry either, for he knows Emma won't help him if he does. And she keeps you posted right? It's not like you haven't heard anything from her since they've left?"

Snow nodded as a single tear fell down her face. "I know that, I know." She said as she wiped the tear away. "But I still miss them, and…I'm worried about David too."

Ruby pursed her lips. "Well you most certainly shouldn't worry about _him_. He's the one who left you, if anything happens to him, that's all just his own fault."

Snow shook her head. "No, no it's not. I'm glad he told me, because, now I can understand, or at least, I think I understand.."

_Flashback  
"That won't do."David said, he and Snow were sitting in Snow's apartment, Emma was working a late shift and Henry was already asleep. "Cora will never fall for that."_

"_Well, then what do __you__ suggest, David. Because honestly, we've been brainstorming for over an hour now and you've rejected every single idea I came up with to save this town." Snow said irritated._

"_Why, yes. Because none of them is any good. Half of your plans cause Regina to get killed, severely injured or being banned together with Cora, and for the other half Cora will never fall or it means you or Emma or Henry will get hurt or will be in danger."_

"_Well then I'd say we pick one of the first half of all of my plans." Snow said._

"_No! I'm not putting Regina's safety in any more danger than it already is!" David now said raising his voice._

"_And __why__is that. Because I honestly don't get it Charming. I don't understand any of this, or of you. It's like I don't know you anymore. You're not the Prince Charming I fell in love with!" Snow said frustration clearly audible in her voice._

"_Well no of course I'm not that same man anymore. We were cursed for 28 years Snow. I've lived another life before the curse was broke, as did you. That changed us. We're not the same anymore indeed. Things weren't going so great between us before the curse broke, in fact, what we had, which can hardly be called an affair, had ended months before the curse broke. We weren't really on speaking terms. Everything worked against us, and I don't know how it is for you, but I – I feel like I don't understand you anymore either. We're just two different people now. As I said, we broke up and we both moved on. And, I still care about you, I do, I really do, but it's just not the same as it was." David said._

_Snow let out a shaky breath as she took in all that David had said. "Well. I'm glad we at least seem to agree on one thing for once, because lately it seems like we disagree on everything. And you're right, we did change, it's different between us. I- I still care about you too, we have a daughter together and a grandson for heaven's sake, but it's just- different. It…it doesn't feel like…"_

"_..true love anymore." David ended her sentence as he stared at his feet, unable to face Snow right now._

"_Yes!" Snow let out in an unsteady voice, David heard her sniff and knew she was crying and it hurt him. "I sometimes wonder, if, if what we have isn't love anymore. Because it doesn't feel that way, and it hurts me so much to think such a thing. Because I do care for you, and I don't want you to be hurt but…I just don't understand you anymore, and we're fighting all the time, and when we kiss.." Snow now paused her ramble and looked up in the air trying to get a hold of her tears._

"_When we kiss the spark isn't there anymore." David finished again. "It's not like before, nor is it like when I kiss…" but that sentence he didn't finish, hoping Snow wouldn't have heard his mistake, but of course she did._

"_When you kiss who? Kathryn?" Snow asked confused, knowing that would not be the answer._

_David shook his head._

"_Then who? When you kiss who David?" Snow felt herself getting angry, that they were going through a rough patch didn't mean it was okay for him to kiss other people._

_David, hearing the anger in Snow's voice knew he would have to be honest with her now, he owed her that. "Before the curse broke.." he started. "and after we broke up, I was seeing someone. It got pretty serious by the time the curse broke, and I really loved her, and I think I still do, but when the curse broke, that made it impossible for us to continue our relationship. I found you again, and, I thought our love had just been caused by the curse, that it had been fake. So I stayed with you, really believing we belonged together. And, I haven't been with her since then, romantically I mean. But, I- I can't get her out of my mind, Snow. I still love her, and even though she says she doesn't love me back.. I don't believe her, I can see in her eyes she's lying to me.."_

_Tears were freely falling down Snow White's face now. Their relationship may have practically ended tonight, but that didn't mean it hurt her to hear her husband was in love with someone else. "Wh- Who is it Charming? Who did you fall in love with?" She asked through her tears._

_David swallowed. "Regina." He mumbled._

"_Who?"_

"_Regina." He said louder._

_As she heard the name of her arch nemesis roll from David's lips Snow forgot to breathe for a second, desperately trying to make up her mind about what she'd just hurt. Her husband, the man she'd loved so much, was in love with…the Evil Queen? They had been secretly having a relationship for weeks before the curse? "What? How?" Was all she managed to say after a while._

"_I'm in love with Regina. As I said, it happened not too long after you and I broke up before the curse broke. Her car broke down so I offered her a ride home, Regina was a good friend to my cursed self so the gesture wasn't weird. When we got home she offered me to stay, that she'd cook for me to thank me. I said no, and just offered to carry her groceries inside for her. When we got in she saw a note stating Henry was having dinner with Archie. She seemed so broken, so sad about it, that I decided to stay for dinner after all. When we were doing the dishes we started talking about the night she had found. And, caught in the moment we kissed. And well..after that it happened all pretty fast._

_But, when the curse broke – "David heard his voice waver and fell tears were now running down his face too. Snow had walked to the window and was staring outside now, he didn't know if he should continue._

"_Go on." Snow said. "I want to understand."_

_David let out a shaky breath. "When the curse broke, I was so mad at her. I thought she had played me like a fiddle, that it had been all a game to her. I confronted her with that at the sheriff's station after we'd locked her up there. She told me that at first it had been about hurting you indeed. But after that kiss...she said she hadn't planned on going any further than that. She told me that she'd fallen for me, that I made her feel like she cared. I didn't believe her. And then you and Emma got sucked into the portal. I was mad at her, yelled at her, called her names. She got her magic back and she took Henry, but when I came to get him, she just let him go, she said she didn't know how to love very well, but that she was willing to try to better herself, that she wanted to redeem herself. So I decided to give her a chance, because deep inside of me I still cared for her. I was so conflicted. And then the whole zombie-Daniel thing happened."_

_Snow turned around as she heard Daniel's name. "Daniel? What does he got to do with all of this?"_

"_Whale – Whale apparently found a way to bring Daniel back from the death, Regina had kept his body in her family mausoleum and kept it preserved with a spell, so he was still the same as when he had died. However, the Daniel Whale brought back wasn't a human, it was a zombie, a monster. He tried to hurt Henry at the stables, I wanted to kill him but Regina flipped, hitting me yelling at me, begging me to let her see him. So I let her as I went to see if Henry was okay._

_When I decided to go back to see what Regina was doing, I saw how Daniel tried to attack her, but how she created a barrier between the two of them to protect herself. Knowing this wasn't the Daniel she'd known and loved she let him go, he was in pain, and it was the only right thing to do. Of course she broke completely down after that. So I decided to take care of her, she was trying to better herself and she didn't deserve this, no one deserves what she had to do. However, Regina barely accepted my help, she was distanced and her cold mayor self to me. She said she didn't love me, that it had all been an infatuation, but I could see in her eyes she felt differently._

_Before I got under the sleeping curse she begged me not to do it, that it was too dangerous. I saw then that she still cared about me. I did it anyways, as you know and from then you kind of now how everything happened. Everything, except for how I woke up. It wasn't you who woke me up from the curse Snow." David now looked intently at Snow's eyes to see how she was taking all he was telling her. Her eyes didn't let him know anything however. They only showed an immense amount of sadness. She didn't even flinch when he told her she hadn't been the one to wake him up._

"_I know." She said in a small voice. "I mean – I didn't really __know_. _But that familiar rush you feel when you break a curse with true love's kiss, it wasn't there. At first I thought it didn't work, but then you woke up, so I decided to let it go, to not think about it anymore. But I take it, it was Regina then who woke you up? You two fooled me?" With this Snow's face contorted in an angry frown._

_David shook his head. "No, Regina didn't fool you, I did. Regina did kiss me and I did wake up, however I pretended to be asleep, for I panicked when I saw it was Regina who woke me up and not you. Regina thought it hadn't worked, that her kiss hadn't worked."_

_Snow shook her head. "That is…an incredibly selfish thing to do, David." She said. "You say you care about her, but now…all of this, it's partly your fault. You're part of the reason why Regina is so broken, why she follows her mother now. Why she believes Cora is the only one that loves her. You made her believe you didn't love her in the way she loved you. And then me and Emma came back, and you were with me all the time, and we left her alone after I "woke you up". And then we accused her of murder, and all that time you did nothing. You just let all of that happen to her, while you claim you love her."_

_David was taken aback by this sudden defense Snow was holding for Regina's cause. "I- I know." He finally said. "I know I've been a horrible jerk. And I've told her so. I went to her house about two months ago. To tell her I was sorry, to explain why I hadn't, but should have, gone to her sooner, told everyone and especially her that I loved her sooner. But I was so extremely conflicted about all of this. I was supposed to be happy with __you__ Snow, not with your nemesis. But, when I got there, she got really mad at me for saying I loved her, she told me to stop saying that, that love is weakness. Her mother is in her head. When I told her about that she woke me up..well that didn't help he to calm down. She forced me to leave, threatening she would wake up Cora if I didn't go. She said I had hurt her in so many ways, that I had brought her in an impossible situation that I didn't know of that she'd rather not see me. I haven't talked to her ever since.__"_

"He's moved out since three weeks now. And honestly Red, I feel like it's getting better. Now we're not fighting all the time we can actually have a normal conversation together. It's much better actually. And that makes that I do am worried about him. He's so desperate to get Regina out of there, he believes so desperately she can still be saved. But I'm not too sure of that. They're onto something." Snow said.

Red nodded. "Yes. They're definitely planning something. The fact that only Cora has left the house these past two months is proof enough. We don't even know if Regina is still alive, Cora might have killed her months ago already."

"I'm actually quite happy Henry went with Emma and Gold." Snow sighed. "This way we won't have to worry about Cora taking Henry with her."

Suddenly the doors of the diner burst open and Leroy an David came running in. "Snow! Red! You have to come, all the newly found diamonds, they're gone, that is, the fairy dust, it's gone. All of it, every single spark is gone." Leroy said.

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Regina sighed as she was lazily watching television, lying on the couch with her feet up, trailing patterns over her now big, round, 8 months pregnant belly. Cora was out, Regina knew she should be searching for anything that could help her escape now she had the chance, but she simply didn't have the energy to do so. She didn't sleep very well because she was so worried all the time, worried about Henry, worried about David, she even felt she was worried about Snow and Emma and the rest of the time. The stress kept her up at night and stress was bad for the baby, which gave her even more to be worried and upset about and that added extra stress again.

In the meanwhile Cora had been carefully planning their way back to the Enchanted Forest. At first Regina had tried to think of ways to stop Cora, but unfortunately she was almost never left alone. Cora made sure she was always keeping a watchful eye on her daughter. Regina's job in all of this was to 'just make sure that baby would be born healthy and strong', as Cora put it, which basically meant she had to rest all day, after the baby was born she would help her mother cast the spell and they would all go to the enchanted forest. Cora had only left the house three times, today being the fourth, these past two months. Cora never said where she was going, although Regina expected her to go to the well to practice the spells she had created, for magic was the strongest close to the source it had come from.

Regina sighed once again and shifted her body to get the remote and change the channel as she suddenly felt a sharp pain running through her body, her eyes went wide and she felt panic and fear controlling her as she realized her waters had just broke.

Suddenly she heard the front door open and close again.

"Mother!?" She whimpered, unable to hide the panic in her voice. When she didn't hear something she tried to get up but as soon as she stood up from the couch another wave of pain hit her body, causing her to fall to the ground in a cry of pain. "Mother!" She now yelled.

She now heard footsteps coming her way. "Yes. Regina. What is it, why are you yelling so rudely?" Cora asked slightly annoyed, but her eyebrows reached an impossible height as she saw her daughter lying on the floor, arms clasped around her belly and her face contorted in pain.

"Mother," Regina whimpered again as she looked up at Cora. "My waters broke, but it's too early, It's no nine months yet and it hurts. Something is wrong." Tears streamed down her face.

Cora stood still for a minute, thinking what would be the best thing to do. Then she quickly walked over to her daughter and transported her and Regina to Regina's bedroom by magic.

She carefully helped Regina down on the bed and let a purple glowing hand move over her daughters round belly, while she was whispering soothing words to her daughter in order to calm her down a little.

"Regina, look at me." Cora said. "Look at me!" She repeated more firmly as Regina didn't react the first time. "Your baby is just fine. It's just decided to come early, which is actually quite kind of the child, because it means we can speed up our plans. Now you have to be a good daughter, because this child clearly isn't planning on waiting any longer, so you'll have to deliver her now.

Regina stared at her mother, eyes wide with fear and pain, o how she wished David was here right now to hold her, to comfort her. She couldn't do this alone, and she was alone now, no matter what supposedly soothing words her mother was saying to her, Regina saw in her eyes she didn't mean a thing of it.

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"The mansion." Snow said. "We got to go to Regina's, Cora will be there. We got to take action now, there's not time to loose now Cora has the fairy dust. She'll be extremely powerful, we have to get over there, see what they're doing so we can come up with a plan."

David nodded. "Then let's not waste time and go right away." He said as he made his way out the diner again followed by Snow, Red and Leroy.

"I wish Gold was here now." Leroy grumbled. "Although I never thought I would say that ever in my life." He added.

"Well, even if Rumplestiltskin would have been in town. That doesn't mean he would be on our side." Snow, who was walking next to David, said. Snow then looked to David and saw the worry clearly written on his face. She grabbed his hand. "Don't worry." She said. "I'm sure she will be fine. You would have felt something if something was really wrong with her. We'll just have to wait and see what we'll discover once we get there."

David gave her a small smile. "Thanks Snow." He said as he squeezed her hand shortly. "But I just don't want to think about what we will discover when we get there. It can't be good."

But from all the things he had thought off they would see if they would get to the mansion, what they actually saw when they got there was not one of them.

"O my god!" Snow whispered as she ran up the path to the mansion were her former nemesis was lying on the ground, pushing herself forward with the little strength her body still had.

David stopped dead in his track for a while when he saw Regina there. She was in her night gown, her face was so pale she seemed to be extremely sick, tears were running down her face and her gown was stained with blood, so much blood.

"David!" Red said as she put a hand on his shoulder to shake him out of his thoughts.

He shook his head and then ran over to Snow who was now trying to get Regina up.

Regina was crying loudly, trying to say something through her sobs, which was not understandably for any of them. She tried to break free from Snow's grasp, hysterically crying.

"Calm down missy!" Leroy yelled at her as he helped Snow to keep her steady.

As soon as David reached the two he wrapped his arms around Regina, Snow and Leroy immediately letting go of her, as Regina fell into his embrace and sobbed uncontrollably.

"Regina. Sssh it is alright, I'm here." David whispered. "what happened?"

Regina lifted her face from his chest and looked at him. "You have to go!" She cried. "You have to go after my mother, safe her. She's got her. She's going to give her to him, I'm going to lose her, I can't lose her!" She now yelled as she started to lose control of her voice again.

David shook his head in confusion. "What? Who's got who? What's going on? What happened Regina, why are you covered in blood?" He asked more firmly now.

"She has my baby." Regina cried. "She's going to sell my baby to that twisted imp! My mother is on her way with her to him right now. You have to go after her. Save my daughter!" She cried. "Please."

Regina felt how her legs were slowly failing to keep her up standing, she heard David talk to her again, asking her things but she couldn't hear it, couldn't understand it, and it didn't take long for everything went black before her eyes and she fell in an endless pool of darkness.

**Another chapter for you all. Quite some angst in this one. Tell me what you think!**

**Please R&R!**

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**Metope**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'll text him**

_Regina felt how her legs were slowly failing to keep her from falling, she heard David talk to her again, asking her things, but she couldn't hear it, couldn't understand it, and it didn't take long before everything went black for her eyes and she fell in an endless pool of darkness._

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"Regina! Stay with me! Regina, I don't understand!" David yelled at the dark haired woman that had gone unconscious in his arms.

"David." Snow now said, worry in her eyes. "We have to get her to the hospital. She's lost a lot of blood."

"But how - I don't understand.." David stammered.

"Dude. What's there not to understand. She's clearly been pregnant and that child has just been born." Leroy remarked unceremoniously.

"And from what I understood Cora has taken the child from her right after it got born and is on her way to sell it to Rumpelstiltskin?" Red asked, disbelief in her voice.

"But Rumpelstiltskin is not in town." Snow said.

"Which means Cora will be back as soon as she realizes he isn't there. So we got to get Regina to the hospital indeed." David now said as he still was trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed. "Snow, you and Red have to take her. I'm going to stay here to wait for Cora to come back."

"But David, I'm sorry to say this, but you're no match for Cora, none of us is. It's better if you come with us so we can get Blue and come up with a plan." Snow said but David shook his head. "No. Regina specifically asked _me_ to save the child, and that's what I'll do."

"I'll stay with him." Leroy said to Snow. "Don't worry Snow, we'll be fine."

Snow let out a deep sigh. "Ok." She then said. "But if something happens to either one of you, I'm going to kill you…"

"...if Cora hasn't taken care of that already." Red joked, which caused Snow to throw a death glare her way.

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_A few hours before_

"I can't do it mother!" Regina cried as she was breathing her way through the next contraption.

"O Regina, behave. Don't be so weak, you're disappointing me." Cora said angry. "Now push, that baby won't be born if you just lie there crying."

"I'm sorry mother." Regina cried as she did as her mother said.

"Honestly Regina, you have to push harder. It's taking you way too long. When my waters broke, you were born within the hour. And here you are lying and crying and acting ridiculously for three hours now already. I don't have time for this."

Regina didn't respond; all she did was cry while she felt so incredibly alone. She knew she shouldn't listen to her mother, she knew Cora was being unreasonable, she knew she was having a difficult labour, but still, she couldn't help but feel how she was letting her mother down.

"Now push one more time, I think that should be enough." Cora said and Regina did as she was told, pushing with all her energy until she felt like all strength had left her body. As she fell back in the pillows she saw how her mother was holding the tiniest baby she'd ever seen.

"Mo – Mother." She breathed. "Why, why isn't the baby crying? Is something wrong?"

Cora said nothing as she cut the navel cord and quickly took the baby with her out of the room.

"Mother, where are you going?" Regina asked in the loudest voice she could produce at that moment. It was then she suddenly heard the sound of a crying baby through the house. "Mother, can I see her? Why did you walk away?" Regina asked again as she lifted herself from the pillows to look where her mother had gone. As there was no response she managed to get herself out of bed and made her way to where the crying was coming from as good and as bad as she could, ignoring the pain in her abdomen, back and legs.

When she arrived she saw how her mother was standing downstairs in the hall, the baby in her arms wrapped in pink blankets. "I have a daughter." Regina said as she let herself fall to her knees at the start of the stairs.

"No you don't." Cora snapped. "Now go back to bed, you need your rest, you'll kill yourself this way."

"Wh- what do you mean, I don't? It's a boy then?" Regina asked confused.

"No, what I mean is that this is not your child. You won't keep the child Regina. How could you ever think I would let you keep the child of a _peasant_. Did you never doubt why I decided to let Henry be your heir to the throne once we are back? It's because he's royal blood, unlike this bastard child. No, this child won't do, Rumpelstiltskin will find a place for the child, but that place is most certainly not with you." Cora spat. "Now, do as I say, stop crying and get back into bed. Get the little rest you can get, because when I'm back we'll enact the spell that will send us all back to the Enchanted Forest." And with that the witch disappeared in a mist of purple smoke, unable to hear the heart rending cry Regina let out.

"No, no, no, no!" Regina whispered to herself. "I've to get her back; I have to get my baby back." And with that she lifted herself once again and started to descend the stairs, half way the stairs she lost her balance however and she was down rather quickly as she fell the second half down the stairs. She let out a cry of pain before she pushed herself up again, ignoring the pain that was setting her entire body on fire. Walking seemed impossible and so she continued to practically push herself over the floor towards her front door.

As she finally managed to open the door she pushed herself forward, hurting her knees and making them bleed as she climbed off the front porch. It was then that she saw Snow, Ruby and Leroy and as soon as she saw David was there too she started to cry uncontrollably as she heard Snow run towards her and holding her.

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Cora was having a hard time trying not to blow things up out of anger when she found out Rumpelstiltskin was not home. And by the look of it, he hadn't been home in a while. How could she have missed this? She knew she had made a mistake, it was her own fault, she had been too focused on making the spell to send everyone back work that she had forgotten to keep an eye on the other vital parts of her plan. The baby, that until then had been peacefully sleeping now started to cry again. "Well." She said to the bundle in her arms that stopped crying immediately at the sound of the woman's voice, big blue eyes staring up at her. "If he doesn't want to take you that's his own loss. I'm going to enact the spell any ways. It's maybe even better that that imp isn't here, he'll be left in this world without magic and we will all be gone. Now let's get you to the town border. I'm sure you'll be found there soon enough after I get the rest of us all back. One stranger has entered the town already; no doubt there will follow more." And with that she left the pawn shop and made her way to the town line where she carefully placed the child over the border, while making sure she herself stayed on the right side of the line. "Well. I hope you'll be found, and if not, that's a shame." She stated as she walked away from the, now again crying, baby.

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"How bad is it?" Snow asked as Dr. Whale left the room Regina was lying in. "She's lost a lot of blood, but that's been taken care of. Beside that she's just exhausted, she's used up all of her strength and energy, her body has shut itself down as a protecting mechanism you could say, it gives her body the chance to recover."

Snow nodded. "Can we see her?" She then asked.

Whale nodded. "Yes, but be careful." With that the doctor left.

"She looks so much unlike herself." Ruby whispered as they entered the room and saw a small and pale Regina lying in the big hospital bed.

Snow nodded. "I just hope she'll indeed be fine as Whale says." She sighed as she shook her head. "Why can things never be easy for us."

"I hear you." Red said. "So Regina was pregnant all this time. No one noticed…"

"She probably used magic to hide it from us." Snow said. "But at least now we know why she didn't try to escape her mother, she wanted to protect her child."

Red nodded. "It is…David's I guess?" Except for Snow, Red was the only one that knew David had had an affair with Regina. Snow had to tell someone to be able to deal with the news, and where Red normally couldn't wait to gossip about the latest scandals in town she understood that she had to keep this quite for her friend's sake.

"I can't think of anyone else." Snow said.

"Unless she first did it with zombie-Daniel before she made him vanished." Red said jokingly causing her to get a second death glare from Snow that day. "Sorry." She whispered. "Not funny."

"I guess Cora has found out that Rumpelstiltskin isn't in town by now." Snow said.

"What is with my name, dearie?" They suddenly heard a voice coming from behind them. When they turned around to see who had entered the room they saw Emma, Henry and Gold standing in the door opening.

"Mom!" Henry cried out as soon as he saw Regina lying in the bed and he ran towards her.

"Henry, careful. Don't wake her up. " Snow said quickly as she kept the boy from throwing himself at his mother. "How did you know we were here?"

"You weren't at home and then we saw David's car standing at the parking lot so we tried here and Dr. Whale told us you were in here." Henry said quickly. "What has happened? What's wrong with her?" He asked, tears in his fearfilled eyes.

Snow looked helplessly to Red who just shrugged, gesturing she thought it was best if Snow told the three what was going on.

"Cut the eye-conversation crap guys. What's going on?" Emma now asked.

"Re- Regina… We found Regina outside her house today." Snow said. "David, Red, Leroy and I went over there because all the fairy dust was gone and we thought Cora and Regina would have it. When we arrived Regina was lying on the ground and…She was crying hysterically...yelling Cora had…had taken her baby and was going to _you,_" Snow nodded towards Gold "to sell the child to you. We figured that as soon as Cora would find out you weren't in town she would return to the mansion, so David and Leroy stayed behind to wait for her and Red and I brought Regina to the hospital."

"Wow." Emma said. "I don't know what I'm more surprised about, the fact that Regina was apparently pregnant, or the fact that her own _mother_ was trying to _sell_ her daughter."

"My mom can't have been pregnant." Henry said in a little voice. "She doesn't have a true love."

Snow smiled a said smile.

"Yeah..you got a point there kid." Emma said. "Who's the father?"

Red saw that Snow wanted to tell Emma but simply couldn't because the facts still hurt her. "David is." Red said for her.

Emma's eyes almost fell out of her head. "Wh – What? You must be joking right?"

Red shook her head. "A lot has happened while you were away."

"We – " Snow swallowed. "We kind of broke up. It didn't work anymore. It didn't work anymore between us before the curse broke, and us remembering who we were didn't change that. We were fighting all the time. It's – it's actually better this way. Things are better now. Don't be mad at him Emma." Snow said as a single tear fell down her cheek.

"No. That can't be." Henry whispered. "You're each other's true loves. My mom can't be with David. That's not how it's supposed to be."

Snow went down on her knees so she was at Henry's level. "I know this is confusing to you, Henry. But it's just how things go, nothing is black or white in life. And your mom and David, they're now each other's true love. It wasn't me who woke David up from the sleeping curse. Regina had tried before me and he woke up then but he pretended to still be under the sleeping curse because he, just as Regina and me, couldn't really handle the truth, although deep inside we all knew things weren't right back then."

"My _mom_ woke David up?" Henry asked, his voice full of disbelieve. Snow nodded. "Yes. They – they were seeing each other before the curse broke, secretly. No one knew, Regina didn't want to tell anyone because she was afraid that you would be upset."

"I'm sorry to interrupt." Gold now said. "But if I have understood everything correctly then Cora has all the fairy dust, she's probably very mad because she couldn't find me, and you left David and Leroy to wait for her at the house?"

Snow nodded, but before she could say something to Gold she got interrupted by a sudden cloud of blue smoke popping up in the room followed by Cora's appearance. "O so_ here_ you kidnapped my daughter to." She said in an overly sweet voice to Snow and Red as she walked towards the bed Regina was in.

"Stay away from my mom!" Henry shouted as he went to stand protectively before the bed, trying to keep Cora away from Regina. "Henry don't!" Snow exclaimed, and to Cora: "What did you do to David and Leroy? How did you know we were here?"

Cora just laughed. "O don't worry Snow, I didn't really harm them, let's say they'll wake up with a headache." She then looked at Henry again. "You'll make a fine King one day, Henry." And she touched the boy's cheek with her hand.

"Don't touch my son!" Emma shouted. Cora turned around and it was only then that she noticed Emma and Gold standing in the room.

"O so you _are_ in town." She said coldly to Gold.

"We only just arrived." The man said back.

"You've been trying to find your son." Cora stated. "He's not with you. I take it you didn't succeed, or maybe you did, and he didn't want to see you." She smiled an evil smile.

"O on the contrary, Cora." Emma now said. "We've found him, and everything went just fine. Gold's relationship with his son may be far from ideal, but it's not even slightly as twisted as the kind of relationship you think you have with Regina."

"My, how nice for you, Rumpel. I see why you didn't need the child I promised you anymore." Cora said, completely ignoring Emma.

"You _knew_ she was going to give you the child?" Emma exclaimed as she looked shocked at Gold.

Gold sent her an annoyed glare. "Business is business, dearie. But Cora, since I wasn't here to collect my prize, what _did_ you do with the child?" He asked.

"Oh simple. I left the child on the side of the road over the town line." Cora said with a smile on her face if she'd just had announced she was going to get married.

"You did what!?" Emma exclaimed as she immediately tried to make her way to the door to go get the child. With a flick of her wrist, however, Cora magically closed the door and made all the others in the room be frozen in the position they were in. "O no, you're not going anywhere. None of you are. Not even _you_ Rumplestiltskin."

"O Really dearie. And what do you think can stop me?"

Cora laughed her evil laugh. "Simple." She said. "I've got your precious Belle captured, and amnesia or not, you still care for her, so you'll do exactly as I say, or she'll die, I can make that happen right now with the simplest flick of my wrist."

Gold let out a frustrated cry. "And what is your plan exactly?"

Cora let out an evil laugh. "You'll notice soon enough. O, and don't try to escape this room as soon as I'm gone, I'll notice and your dear Belle and Prince Charming will die." With that she walked over to the bed and took her daughter in her arms as she grabbed Henry's shoulder with her free hand and teleported the three of them out of the room. As soon as she'd left, it became possible for the others in the room to move again, however the door was still closed.

"Shit!" Emma cried out. "She has Henry, she has Regina and god knows what she's planning on doing."

"Not to mention the poor baby that's out there on her own. She's only a few hours old, she'll die!" Snow exclaimed.

"Now that's something I can actually do something about." Emma said as she got her phone from her pocket. "Neal, Gold's son is supposed to arrive in Storybrooke just about now. He had to take care of stuff before he could leave so we already left and he was coming later. I'll text him to go find the baby." Emma said as she started texting.

Red sighed. "Ok. He'll find her of course." She told herself. "So that's one thing less to worry about. Now what are we going to do?"

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"A baby on the side of the road just before I enter Storybrooke? Wth" Neal said to himself as he stepped out of his car to go look for the mentioned baby. He didn't have to look long before he indeed saw a small pink bundle lying on the roadside. Quickly he walked to the bundle and picked it up. Two watery bright blue eyes looked up at him.

"Hey there, and what are you doing out here on your own?" He cooed.

The baby just blinked.

"You're really small you know that? You're not so long in this world yet are you? Now, come I'll take you to the hospital in this town, and then Emma can explain to us what's happened to you. How about that?" Neal said, but just as he started to walk back to his car his attention got attracted by the low and threatening sound of thunder coming closer. When he turned around his eyes went wide as he saw a giant cloud of purple smoke slowly nearing him, covering the entire town.

"You're kidding me." He whispered. "I'm not even fully back yet and magic is already going crazy again." And with that he started running to his car, holding the baby close to him, for his car seemed the best hiding place from that cloud, he thought.

**Cliffhangerrrrrr**

**Well I decided to continue this because you said I should. So tadaa for you all, and thank you very much for all the positive reviews, they really help me continue writing this story! I realise we haven't had a lot actual evil charming fluff yet, but I promise I'll get to that in either the next chapter or the one after that ;)!**

**Please R&R!**

**X**

**Metope**


	7. Chapter 7

**What did I do**

_Moments before the purple smoke appeared_

"Let me go! Let me go!" Henry screamed as he tried to break himself free from Cora's grip. Cora suddenly did as the boy had asked, which caused him to fall backwards, he prepared himself for a painful landing but landed in a bed of soft leafs. It was then the boy looked around to take in his surroundings, he saw they were in the forest near the well.

"Wh – What are you going to do?" He asked, tears in his eyes as Cora was bend over Regina who was still lying unconsciously on the ground.

"I'm going to bring us home, dear boy." Cora said with a smile. "Now be a good boy and come over her to help me get your mother in a more comfortable position."

Hesitantly Henry came closer to the two women as soon as Cora was talking about his mother. Regina was almost as pale as Snow was, which was unusual for the olive toned skin of his mother. "You shouldn't have taken her. She's not well. Now she's going to die and it's your fault." He said angrily.

Cora just laughed at him. "O don't worry. You don't think I would let my daughter die after all this? She's been long enough in that hospital place to be out of danger. She's just exhausted herself, the only thing she needs now is sleep, and that she can get both in this and in our world. Now be a good boy and stay with your mother, while I'm going to prepare the spell." And without waiting for an answer she walked away.

Henry didn't know what to do, he felt so lost and incredibly scared. He looked over at his mom who was just lying there, eyes closed, pale skin. "Mommy.." he whispered and he went to lie next to her putting her arm around him as he snuggled himself close to her body. Suddenly he felt his mother's body stir, quickly he put himself up to look at her and he saw how she slowly opened her eyes.

"Mom." He whispered, careful not to attract Cora's attention.

"He- Henry...You're back…" Regina said, her voice hoarse, slowly she looked around. "Wh- where are we? What's happened?" Suddenly her eyes widened. "Wh- Where is my baby? My mother... O honey are you okay?" She then asked as she saw tears rolling down Henry's face.

He shook his head. "Mom. Cora is – she's going to bring me and you to your land. Now."

"Now?" Regina whispered. "Where is she? Where is everyone?" She tried to get up, but a sharp pain in her abdomen made her fall back again.

"I don't know. She said I had to stay here with you while she's making preparations for the spell. Emma and Snow and Gold and the others are locked in a hospital room. I don't know where David and Leroy are, but she threatened to kill them and Belle if they tried to escape. You have to do something, mommy. I don't want to go there."

Regina let out a small whimper of frustration, she swallowed. "Ok. Listen very carefully Henry. I'm going to try to get us out of here. But you have to let me use magic to do so. Is that okay?"

Henry nodded. "Yes. You're going to do it now?"

His mother shook her head. "No. It has to happen right before she sends us there."

"Ok." Henry wanted to say more but he saw Cora coming back. "O she's coming back." He whispered as he quickly went to lie down next to his mother again and Regina closed her eyes, pretending she was asleep.

"It's time, my dear boy." Cora said as she turned herself to the well and got a satchel filled with fairy dust, she let the content fall in the well together with a compass, Henry saw. As soon as she had let go of the compass a low thunder sound came from the well and it didn't take long before purple fog started to come out of the well.

As Cora turned around she saw Regina awake, sitting up, talking to Henry. Quickly she walked towards the two.

"Mom, come on! She's coming!" Henry yelled.

"I'm sorry Henry." Regina cried. "I'm not strong enough to protect us both. I love you, never forget that." Regina cried as she let Henry disappear with a wave of her hand as she fell down on her back again, feeling drained of her energy again. Somewhere she heard Cora scream in frustration and she saw the purple fog blinding her sight, and then everything went black again.

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When Henry woke up he was staring in the bright lights they only had in hospitals. When he looked around he saw he was in an hospital indeed.

"Thank god you're awake." He heard a voice from beside him.

"Neal." He said surprised as he looked to his right to find his father sitting on a chair next to him.

"Hi kid. You gave me quite a scare when you suddenly were lying there on the street."

"What?" Henry asked confused.

"You don't remember?" Neal asked.

"I remember being in the woods with my mom – "

"Emma?" Neal asked.

"No, my other mom, Regina. I was there, and Cora was there too, she took me there. And she was going to send us to their world, to _your_ world. And mom said she would try to get us out, but when the moment came she said she didn't have enough energy to magic us both away." He started to cry now. "So..so she- she said she loved me and then there was a bright light and...then I don't know.." Tears were freely falling down his face now.

Neal stood up from his chair and caressed his face with his thumb. "Hey, don't cry. It's okay now. It's over. You're save now." He said.

"I think your mom sent you past the town line, knowing Cora's spell wouldn't reach that far. I was there. I was hiding in my car from the purple fog when suddenly you appeared in the middle of the road, unconscious. So I got out of my car to get you and I've turned around and drove to Boston to get you to a hospital, and here we are now."

"Everything is okay?" Henry sniffed. "So my mom is still here?"

Neal sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry kid. But no. When I went back to check what had happened everyone was gone. All buildings were still there, all the people were just gone. As if they'd decided to all leave town at the same time, no matter what they were doing. Emma, my father, all gone…"

Henry's eyes widened. "All of them? Not just my mom? I- I- " He started to panic. "I thought she was only going to take me and my mom there. Not _everyone_! Then I'm all alone now! It's just you, and me!"

Neal nodded. "I'm sorry son. It's indeed just you and me now...and this little lady." Neal said and he pointed at the little bundle he was holding, which Henry hadn't noticed until now.

"Who's that?" He asked.

Neal shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was there at the town line when it happened because Emma texted me I had to go look for a baby that would be there somewhere. And that's she."

Henry's eyes grew wide. "That's my sister!" He exclaimed.

"Your sister? What?" Neal asked confused.

"My mom. Regina I mean. She was pregnant, but no one knew. But when the baby got born, Cora took her right away and left her there past the town border. She was planning on selling her to Mr. Gold – to your dad – but he wasn't in town yet because he was with us searching for you, so this seemed the best solution to her." Henry explained.

"Aha.." Neal said. "I see..so I'm holding the daughter of the evil queen in my arms here?" He asked.

"Yes. From the Evil Queen and Prince Charming." Henry stated.

Neal let out a nervous laugh. "What? I thought Prince Charming was Snow White's husband?"

Henry shrugged. "I thought so too, but apparently I overlooked something. David now is my mom's true love."

Neal shook his head. "Man..what did I get myself in to."

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"No! No, no, no, no!" Emma screamed as they suddenly found themselves in Snow and David's summer castle. "We just came back from this place!"

Snow quickly walked over to Emma and pulled her close to her. "It's okay Emma. We'll get used to this. We – This once was our home. We learned to live in your world, I'm sure you'll be able to live in ours."

Emma shook her head. "But I don't want that." She was close to crying now.

"Guys…you might want to get over here." Ruby now said.

Both Snow and Emma turned around and gasped as they saw both Leroy and David lying on the ground, the two men were slowly waking up.

"David." Snow gasped as she ran towards the two men.

"Where are we?" Leroy asked as he looked around confused.

"We're back.." David remarked, disbelieve in his voice. "Where is Regina? Is everything okay with her? I thought you were with her? And Emma, you're back.."

Snow smiled as she knelt down to David. "Cora broke in to the hospital; she took Regina and Emma with her and immobilized us. We couldn't do anything. Then suddenly there was all these purple smoke, and the next thing we knew we were here."

David went to sit up now. "Then we got to find them. I don't even want to start thinking about the danger they can be in."

"Wouldn't it be better if we try to find the others first?" Leroy tried.

"No. We can't lose any time." David said upset. "We have to get the three of them now."

"Three?" Snow asked confused.

"Well yes, Henry, Regina and the baby." David said.

"O David.." Snow said in a sad voice.

"David." Gold now said. "I'm afraid your daughter isn't with Regina."

"What? How is that? When Cora returned to the mansion she didn't have the baby with her. You are here, but you don't have the baby either so I figured she has to be with Regina then?"

Snow shook her head. "No, David. Cora has left the child outside Storybrooke. She's left her on the road just over the town line."

"What? No!" David cried out. "She'll die!"

"I texted Neal, Gold's son and Henry's father, long story." Emma said as she all the confused and asking faces in the group. " Anyway, I texted it the moment Cora left to go look for her before he'd enter town. He was supposed to follow us to Storybrooke. So all we can do is hope he found her… I'm sure he did." Emma said, trying to reassure David.

"Well.." David started. "Then we have to get the _two_ of them back, and then we have to find a way back to Storybrooke."

"We better try to find the rest first, as Leroy said." Snow now said.

"Yes. I have to find Granny, and we have to find the other dwarfs, and Archie, and – and the blue fairy, she can help us. She'll help us."

David slowly nodded. "Okay. Fine. Let's do that then."

Emma sighed. "And there we go again."

Snow now sighed too. "O come on Emma. We've only been here for a week. A horrible week, I agree, but only a week. You act like you know all about this land but you don't. You only saw the bad parts. It was beautiful here before the curse. We'll just rebuild that!"

"Uh, sorry, Snow. I don't know but….you weren't away for a week…you were away for 2 months." Leroy remarked.

Emma laughed. "Uh no we weren't. I would know if we were because I would have gone completely crazy after two months here and I don't consider me in that state yet."

Ruby shook her head. "No, you really were away that long."

"What?" Snow asked. "How is that possible? How come we never noticed?"

"Well. There really wasn't any time to talk. Everything was kind of hectic with Hook and Cora." David said.

"But still. I'm very sure it was only one week. I counted the days to not get crazy." Emma said.

"Well. You're both right, dearies." Gold now said. "Just as magic, time works different in both worlds. We're living here in a different time zone you could say. Time passes faster in Storybrooke than it does here."

"What. You mean that while we are here talking for a few minutes now, that could mean years have passed in Storybrooke already?" Emma asked sarcastically.

"Years? No, dearie." Gold replied. "But time sure goes faster. A week here, apparently is two months over there."

"Well, just as I thought things couldn't get any crazier, they got crazier." Emma sighed.

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Cora watched her daughter turning under the sheets of the bed she was lying in. Cora leaned against the castle wall of what was once the Evil Queen's castle, she was observing Regina with a worried look on her face. Tears were running down the younger woman's face as soft whimpers escaped from her lips, now and then a scream or a single word was cried out by the brunette. It seemed as if Regina was reliving her past again. First Cora had heard her daughter cry out her name several times, then Daniel had passed review. Cora had tried to calm Regina down, but nothing seemed to work, Regina didn't even seem to notice Cora was trying to wake her up. She was just lying there, eyes closed, her pale skin hot because of the fever she was having. Now she was crying harder however, being more restless in her sleep. "No…no get off me. Please.." She heard her daughter whimper. Cora shook her head in confusion, not sure what this was about. "I don't feel well…. No _please_. You're hurting me." Regina's voice grew stronger as she arched her back as if she was in pain. "No! Let me go! Leopold _please_!" She now cried out loud and Cora felt all colour draining from her face as she realized what kind of nightmare Regina was having. Quickly she walked away, unable to deal with her daughter's pain. She decided to take a walk through the castle, to look what had to be repaired, yes that was best, she decided for herself.

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Suddenly Regina woke up, finding herself sitting straight up in a big bed that was strangely familiar to her. She felt horrible, feverish and her eyes hurt because of all the crying. She shook her head as she tried to block the memories her nightmares had caused. As she took in her surroundings she slowly remembered what had happened. "She did it.." She whispered to herself as she found herself in her old bedchamber.

"O, you're awake. Good." She heard a voice and she saw Cora enter her room. "How do you feel?"

"Fine." Regina replied.

Cora frowned as she took in Regina's face that was staring blankly at her, no emotion to be seen whatsoever, just as when Cora had first arrived in Storybrooke.

"Well. I would like to confirm that dear, but I would be lying. You don't look fine at all." Cora now walked to the bed and held her hand against Regina's forehead. The brunette jerked away at first at the sudden touch of her mother but as she realized her mother didn't mean to do her any harm this time she let her.

"You still have a fever. I'll go make you some tea and find some medicine for you. It will just be a minute." Cora said as she walked towards the door.

"Mother.." Regina said.

Cora turned around with a questioning look. "Yes?"

"Where is Henry?"

"Well, you'll have to tell me, dear. I guess he's still in Storybrooke because of that little stunt the two of you put off."

Regina couldn't repress a relieved sigh, slowly she looked up to her mother, expecting to meet angry eyes. She was surprised to see her mother didn't look angry at all, she almost thought she saw worry in those eyes. "You're not mad at me?" She asked in a small voice.

Cora smiled. "Well of course not dear. I only wanted Henry to come with us, because he could be our heir to the throne, obviously, but mostly because you seemed to care so much about the boy. But apparently I miss understood. Since you were willing to punish him this severely for his lack of trust and gratitude."

Regina shook her head in confusion. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well, dear. We are all here now. Meaning Henry is out there all by himself, with no one to take care of him."

Regina's eyes grew wide. "What?" She asked again. "We're _all_ here? As in, Emma and Snow and everyone?"

"Yes dear." Cora answered getting slightly impatient. "That's what the word _all_ means, last time I checked. Well, I'm going to get you some tea now." And with that she left, for Cora the conversation was over.

Regina, however, was only just barely beginning to understand what their conversation meant. Slowly it started to dawn on her what she'd done. In her attempt to save Henrys he had in fact brought him more danger, more pain, more sadness than ever. She'd disappointed him once again. She felt how she almost started hyperventilating as she thought about how her sweet little only eleven years old boy was now all alone in Storybrooke. Without either one of his moms or anyone else to take care of him. "What have I done?" She asked herself as tears were freely falling down her cheeks. She hated her mother, she hated everything, she hated Leopold, she hated her life, she hated Gold, she hated….she hated herself…

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As Cora returned to Regina's room with tea and some herbs that should help get down the fever, she didn't find her daughter in her bed. However she saw the doors to the balcony were now opened as the curtains were lazily waving inside by the soft wind.

She put the plate down on one on the night stand as she walked towards the balcony. "Regina, dear. What are you doing? You shouldn't be up, you're too weak yet." She said as she pushed the curtains aside, but what she saw stopped her dead in her tracks.

Her daughter was standing on one of the battlements of the castle tower staring down at the staggering depth below her. As she heard Cora's voice she slowly turned her head. Cora gasped at her daughters staring dark eyes filled with nothing but emptiness and a slight flicker of intense pain and regret.

"Regina…" Cora started, she tried to set a step in Regina's direction but felt herself incapable of moving as fear, a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time, was taking over her body.

Regina just gave her mother a weak and sad smile before she looked back down to the ground that was so far below her, and then…jumped.

**The end…. No kidding…this is just the worst possible cliffhanger I could give you..mwuahahaha.**

**I promise I'll try to update soon (say within two days)…and I know I promised you evil charming, but that will just have to wait a little longer…meaning you'll have to wait one or two more chapters for it to come ****.**

**Please Read and Review ****!**

**X**

**Metope**


	8. Chapter 8

**The bracelet**

It didn't take Snow and the others long to find everyone. As soon as they got outside they found out that Cora's spell had somehow also rebuilt the land for the larger part. Most people of Storybrooke had 'landed' in the forest surrounding the castle and so they had found everyone rather quick.

"Ok. The best thing we can do now is go to Regina's castle, for I am sure Cora is holding Henry and Regina captive there, and observe it for a while. See if there are any guards or ogres or anything of the sort." David said. He, Blue, Snow, Ruby, Emma, Granny and Leroy were all sitting in the council room of the castle to discuss further action.

Snow nodded. "Ok. In the meanwhile a group has to stay here to make sure everything here goes alright. We'll have to find out if there is anyone missing, whether people are injured or not, etcetera. I'm willing to do so." She looked around if anyone would object but they all nodded in agreement.

"Me and Granny will help you, Snow." Ruby said.

David nodded. "Ok. Leroy will you stay with them too?" Leroy nodded and Snow huffed. "You really think we can't take care of ourselves, that we need a man with us at all times?"

David shook his head. "No. I know you would be capable of taking care of yourself, but I just feel better knowing Leroy is with you."

"Yeah right." Snow huffed again.

"And who is joining me?" David asked.

"I am." Emma said. "Henry is there, and I'm going to get him away from there."

"I'll go with you too." Blue now said. "A little magic might come in handy if you're about to stroll through by ogres invaded woods to the castle where an evil witch is living."

"Thanks Blue." David said, and he was truly thankful that she was willing to help, after all she had no reason at all to help the Queen that had cursed them all.

"Speaking of magic, where is Gold?" Granny now asked.

"I'm here." a voice sounded and Gold now entered the council room with an unconscious Belle in his arms. "I found her in the woods, I was just in time to save her from an ogre." He said bitterly. "It's chaos outside."

"We'll take care of her." Snow said, but Gold shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving her again. I'm staying with her. You'll have to do without me. Besides, Cora would feel my presence as soon as I would get even near the tower, I would only betray your positions.

"Ok. Then it will just be me, Blue and Emma then." David stated. "Let's go to the armour room to see if we can find a useable sword there for me and you." He said to Emma.

* * *

"That left tower, with the doors with red curtains, that's where Regina's room is." David whispered to Emma and Blue as they were hiding behind some bushes a few meters from the castle. Their way to the castle had been rather uneventful once they had finally left the land directly surrounding Snow's castle. It seemed all ogres were there and since it seemed Cora hadn't her own castle protected the rest of the way was without any problems.

"How do you know?" Emma asked.

"Snow told me before we left. I figured that Regina would still be weak because of giving birth so she would probably be in her bedchamber andI asked Snow where to find her."

"Ok. So what do we do now?" Emma asked.

"We – " but David stopped his sentence as the balcony doors of the tower suddenly opened and they saw someone getting out.

"That's Regina." Emma whispered as she recognized the light blue night gown Regina had been wearing. And if that hadn't given it away her dark hair had told them it was Regina. They watched how she slowly walked towards the battlements of the tower. Even from the great distance they were watching they could see Regina was having a hard time holding herself up.

"What is she doing?" David whispered as Regina now slowly started to climb up on one of the battlements. Slowly she set a step closer to the edge of the stone and she looked down.

"Has she become crazy?" Emma asked.

"My god, she's going to jump." Blue whispered.

"Blue you have to do something!" David now said no longer trying to be silent.

I can't, I'm too far away from her for fairy dust to work. Emma you have to do it."

"What me? Why me?" Emma asked.

"You have magic, you are the product of true love. You've done it before. All you have to do is focus. You have to _want _Regina to get here and you have to _want_ her to land safely on the ground. And hurry because we don't have much time left." Blue said as they watched how Regina was now setting another step towards the edge of the wall.

The events that followed happened rather quickly. Cora now came outside and Regina looked to her mother for a while. The older woman seemed to say something to her daughter but Regina turned her head back to the staggering depth she had been staring at and then jumped.

They heard Cora give a bloodcurdling scream and saw how the woman was falling down and how Cora seemed to be frozen at the spot. "Emma now!" Blue called.

Emma closed her eyes and concentrated. She pictured the woman she had seen falling down the tower, her hair ruffling in the wind. She pictured how the woman should be in David's arms instead. How the woman should just suddenly pop up there, no falling or ground-hitting involved. Suddenly she felt that now almost familiar sensation go through her body, the same feeling she had had when she had pushed Cora away from the portal and when she had used the dream catcher. And when she opened her eyes again she saw that Regina was indeed with them. Only she was not as much lying in David's arms as that she was lying on top of him.

Quickly Regina sat up. "No, no no!" She cried as she got off of David. "Why did you do that!?"

"Uh well sorry, Regina, sorry for saving your life." Emma said in a huff.

"I didn't want to be saved." She cried as she grabbed for her head with one hand trying to stop the pounding.

"Regina are you feeling ok?" Blue asked as she noticed the look of pain that washed over Regina's face.

"No.." the woman sobbed. "But I was getting better until you three interfered."

"How can you say that?" David asked. "How can you think ending your life is making things better? How could you do that to us. How could you do that to Henry? How can you leave him alone in there?"

"He's not in there." Regina answered as she shook her head.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked confused. "Is he – Is he d- ?"

"No he is not dead." Regina cut Emma off. "But he's still in Storybrooke!" She sobbed and she now leaned in to David, who was now holding her, and sobbed against his chest. "He – He told me, when I woke up in the forest, that my mother was only sending me and him back here. So, when she casted the curse..I teleported him to outside Storybrooke so the magic wouldn't take him. I didn't have enough energy to teleport myself there too. And I thought he was safe. But my mother told me – she just told me that she brought _all_ of you back to our land. Which means Henry is out there _alone_!" Sobs were now causing her body to shake heavily. "I've ruined everything for him once again. I made it all worse than it was."

David tried to sooth her by slowly rocking her back and forth. "You didn't know. You did what you thought was best for him. You didn't fail him. We just have one extra reason to get back to Storybrooke as soon as possible." He put in perspective.

Regina looked up. "What is the other reason?"

"Our daughter, is the other reason." David answered with a sad smile.

Regina's eyes went wide again. "She's out there too?" She exclaimed. "You didn't get her? But she will _die_! She's only a few hours old!" And as the meaning of the words she had just spoken truly hit her Regina started to hyperventilate.

"Regina calm down." Blue tried and she tried to grab the woman's face to make her look at her. However as soon as she touched the brunette, Regina turned her head away, leaning more against David, her breathing slowed down and silent tears were now falling down her cheeks.

"My god, David. She's burning with fever." Blue exclaimed. "We got to get her temperature to drop."

"Well, we have to get out of here anyways." Emma remarked. "Cause it won't be long before Cora will find out we have her daughter, and I don't want to be here when that happens."

David nodded. "But she can't travel like this."

"I can try to teleport us back to the palace?" Emma said. "I mean, if I can do it with Regina, I must be able to do it with us four too?"

* * *

Snow was just counting how many more beds they would need for those who were attacked by ogres or injured by other causes, as Ruby came to get her. "Snow, they're back, _with_ Regina."

"What? They're back already? And Regina's with them? Was she able to escape by herself?" But Snow stopped asking questions as soon as she saw the now unconscious woman in David's arms.

"O dear. You need a bed for her, I assume." Snow gasped as she gestured David to come with her.

"Yes, and a doctor too. Did you happen to find Whale already?" David asked.

Snow shook her head. "No, but Doc is here so he can look after her. I'll get him right away."

* * *

"Well it appears she has a high fever, obviously." Doc stated as he turned away from Regina and filled Snow, Emma and David in. "and apart from that she is exhausted. Which perfectly understandable if you know she's just given birth and hasn't had a good moment rest ever since. We just have to let her sleep and then I'm sure she will be fine. She is strong. The Queen does not give up easily as we all know." Doc awkwardly joked.

"Well that is what I am afraid of actually." David said. "She doesn't appear to be so strong anymore."

"What do you mean, David." Snow asked. "What happened back there?"

Emma answered for David as she saw he was having a hard time explaining. "Regina jumped of the castle tower. She tried to kill herself. I prevented it by using magic, but else she would have been dead by now."

Snow gasped at the news. "You used magic?" Was the first thing she asked.

"Oh yes that's what was shocking about what I just told you." Emma said sarcastically.

Her mother shook her head. "I'm sorry. But it just sounds nothing like Regina to give up. And what about Henry and Cora?" She then asked.

"Cora was too late to prevent her from jumping and when she jumped she just stood there. I think she was in shock." David now said. "As for Henry...he's the reason why she jumped in the first place, she said. Henry is still in Storybrooke."

"Nooo.." Snow breathed.

"He thought Cora would only take him and Regina with her to your land." Emma said as tears now entered her eyes. "So that's what he told Regina and she sent him over the town line with her magic thinking she had saved him. But instead – instead he's alone now, he's there all alone with no one to take care of him." Snow now pulled her daughter into a hug to calm her down as tears streamed down Emma's face.

"We'll find a way to get back to him, Emma." Snow said. "And you said Neal was on his way to Storybrooke, right? So he's probably found Henry by now and is taking care of him."

Emma pulled away from Snow. "But cannot _find_ a way back, Snow. We have to _have_ a way back, right now. You heard what Gold said, time passes quicker in Storybrooke. Who knows how much time will have passed by the time we have _found_ a way back."

Snow opened her mouth to calm Emma down but got interrupted by Regina who was softly whimpering in her sleep. "What is she saying?" She asked instead.

The four adults turned back to watch the brunette in the bed, who was now turning under the sheets. "I'll give her something to calm down." Doc said as he walked away to get what he needed.

"_I don't want to be alone._" Regina whimpered. "_You're a genie.._"

"She's dreaming about Sidney.." Snow gasped.

"_They're celebrating Snow's 18__th__ birthday.."_ Regina said delirious. "_A big party it is indeed. When I turned 18 he didn't even congratulate me. I wonder if the King even knew it was my birthday."_

Emma looked at her mother with her eyes wide of shock. "How old was Regina when she married your father?"

"I- I don't know, but - "

"How _old_ Snow?" Emma asked more firmly.

"I think..I remember she had just turned seventeen when I met her. She married my father shortly after."

"My god." Emma breathed. "She was still a child _herself_."

"_...I'm sorry my King."_ Regina whimpered again. _"I just needed some fresh air. I didn't think I had to tell you I was going out for a walk...No..please...I'm sorry...no I didn't __**do**__ anything else...Please let go of my arm..you're hurting me..."_ Regina was silent for a while but her face was contorted in a frown, her eyes squeezed as if she was in great pain. _"...No please not tonight? I don't feel well...I told you..."_ she started to cry in her sleep now.

Luckily for the three of them Doc came back with the medicine at that moment.

David looked with sad eyes how Doc gave Regina the medicine. He had had no idea about what her life with the King had been like. She had always refused to talk about it, but now he knew what caused her eyes to always have that spark of sadness in them. He had always known it wasn't just Daniel's loss that had caused that sadness, but now he knew. He thought back to the first time he had noticed that sadness in her eyes, her behaviour back then now suddenly made so much sense.

_"Hi." David said as Regina opened the door of her mansion with a questioning look on her face. "Henry is staying over at Ava and Nicholas' I heard, so I brought movies." He said as he hold up three DVD's in his hand._

_"O." Was all she said. "David, I don't know...That one night...". _

_"I know. That was a mistake we both made. But that doesn't mean we can still be friends, does it?" David interrupted her. "I've come her with three totally innocent DVD's to watch them with you, as friends."_

_Regina seemed to think about his offer for a moment and then let out a small, genuine, smile. "Ok." She said as she opened the door further to let him in._

_David gave her a happy smile in return as he entered her house. "So, which movie doe you want to watch?" He asked as he went to sit down on her couch in front of the television. "I didn't really know into what kind of movies you are so I brought three totally different options with me." He continued as Regina went to sit next to him on the couch after she had made both of them something to drink._

_"We have..'Something Borrowed' which is supposed to be rather funny, 'The Duchess' which is a historical drama about a woman forced into a loveless marriage while she secretly loves someone else.." David didn't notice the twitch in Regina's face as he was talking about the movie and just continued "..and I have corpse bride, which is this great animated movie by Tim Burton. So which one will it be?"_

_Regina let out a nervous laugh. "You- You don't have anything that's __not__ about marriage with you?" She asked and as David looked up he saw a certain fear and pain in her eyes he couldn't really place._

_"Uhm..I hadn't really noticed I only brought movies in that theme." He admitted with a goofy smile. "Marriage is not your thing,hm?"_

_Regina shook her head. "No, uhm..it's fine..it's..I don't know. It's stupid of me. I'm sorry. We can watch something borrowed I think. I'll be fine." She said as she tried to give him a – failing- convincing smile._

_David shook his head. "No. It's not like we __have__ to watch a movie. If you don't like them we don't watch them. We can do something else too. That's perfectly fine with me."_

_"Like what?" Regina asked unsure as she held her gaze fixed on her hands._

_"uhm we could..." David's voice trailed off as he got lost in his thoughts. Before the 'lasagne-night' –as he had named that one night – he had never seen Regina this vulnerable, and now here he was taken aback by her behaviour that was almost out of character, once again._

_"Yes, that's what I thought." Regina snapped him out of his thoughts. "Well dear, I appreciate the gesture, and I'm sorry I ruined it. I guess you can finish your drink and find your way out yourself?" She asked and as David looked at her he saw she had put her walls back up, the cold mayor Regina mask back in place again. And before he could really over think what he was doing he grabbed her head with both hands and smashed their lips together._

_Regina let out a small gasp and David used the opportunity to enter his tongue in her mouth. She tasted just as he had remembered, sweet yet with a sharp edge, she tasted like apples. He lost the taste as Regina broke the kiss and pulled her head away. "David." She breathed, eyes wide with shock as her chest was heaving heavily. _

_David shook his head. "I'm sorry Regina. I don't know what came over me. I – " But he got silenced as Regina now pressed her lips against his. "We have to talk about your definition of 'friends' after this, mister." She said after which she kissed him again._

_David smiled as he kissed her back and slowly put her on her back on the couch. "Well, it seems to me you like this definition I have for it." He said as he now kissed the crook of her neck._

_"Shut up." Regina breathed._

* * *

_"Thank you." Regina whispered as she looked at David who was lying next to her in her bed. They had changed the small couch for her bedroom rather quickly._

_"You weren't that bad yourself either." David smiled at her, but Regina shook her head._

_"No I don't mean that..or, of course I'm thankful for that as well.." she added as she thought how it sounded what she had just said. "But I mean thank you for coming here in the first place. For wanting to be my friend...for...not leaving me alone.." And with that she turned herself on her back so she didn't have to look at David._

_Said man didn't know how to react at first. What an odd thing to say, he thought, who could ever not want to be with her. Sure, she could be a real bitch, but if you got to know her a little...she was actually a wonderful person. Funny, smart, even with her dishevelled her hair and make-up she still looked gorgeous, and she had the most beautiful laugh. It was her laugh that he loved to hear the most. Wow David, he thought to himself, don't let yourself get too carried away. Who says she feels the same way about you? Because he still didn't know how to respond he decided to just grab her right hand who was lying next to her body and he rubbed the back of it with is thumb._

_She didn't pull her hand away as he had expected but just let out a content sigh._

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Regina felt horrible. She had been having nightmares due to the fever the past five days. She had been awake a few times and all those times she had seen David sitting next to her, feeding her some soup or giving her water as soon as he had noticed she was awake. She tried to stay awake every time, unwilling to drift back to sleep and into another nightmare of her past, but she just felt too tired all the time. Now too she slowly felt her eyes close again and she took a deep breath before she felt sleep take over, preparing herself for the next memory to pop up. However this time she didn't find herself back in the castle she had lived in with Snow for so many years. This time she was sitting in a green field, birds where sitting in trees and butterflies were flying by.

As she looked around she saw an about two months old baby lying on its back on a plaid. And even though the rational part of her mind told her this could not be her daughter, for she had never laid eyes on her daughter nor could her daughter be this old already, Regina knew it was her the moment she saw her.

Quickly she walked over to the child, picked her up and hugged the child tight to her chest. The child cried out in happiness as she felt her mother pick her up.

Regina loosened her grip on the child a little so she could at her daughters face. "You're so beautiful." She whispered as she looked into the bright blue eyes of the girl that made her think of David. The tuft of dark hair the girl had were unmistakably due to Regina's genes. "You're the most beautiful baby girl ever, you know that." Regina cooed as she felt tears fall down her face. She went to lie down on the plaid, the girl next to her so she could look at her daughter as the little girl was happily playing with Regina's fingers.

Regina's eyes suddenly fell on a small bracelet the baby was wearing. Something was written on in but because of the baby's constant moving she couldn't read it, so she decided to get it off the child to be able to read it.

When she had finally managed to remove the bracelet from the baby's chubby arm she held it up to read what was written on it. _Julie_ was engraved in the bracelet. Regina gasped. "So you're named Julie, hm? Just as I wanted you to be named." She smiled at herself, of course the baby was called Julie, this was a dream after all, a nice one this time, and everything was as she wanted it to be.

Suddenly her surroundings started to fade, she was waking up. "No, not yet." Regina breathed and she shut her eyes, hoping that when she would open them again she would still be in the meadow. But as she opened her eyes she stared up at the ceiling of the room she had been lying in these past few days.

"Regina, you're awake again." She heard David's voice from beside her and she turned her head to look at him.

"I- I saw our baby. I dreamed about our baby." She whispered as tears fell silently down her face.

"You did?" David asked in a sad smile as he gently stroked her arm. "You seem to be feeling better?"

Regina nodded. "She was too old to be our baby though," she continued. "and I shouldn't even know whether she was it, because I've never seen her, but I just felt it was her."

"You didn't get to see her?" David gasped.

Regina sadly shook her head. "My mother took her away the minute she was born. I only got to see how she wrapped her in a pink blanket. That's how I figured we had a daughter. Then-" A sob prevented Regina from continuing. "- after that she took her away. But now I was in this meadow and there she was, lying on a plaid in the grass. Although she was about two months already, so it actually really couldn't be her, she's only 5 days old...and probably...she's probably _died_ already." Regina started to cry again and David now stood up from the chair he had been sitting on and pulled her into a hug.

"That doesn't have to be the case, Regina." He whispered to her as he rubbed her back.

"How do you mean? My mother brought everyone here." Regina sobbed.

"But Neal, Rumplestiltskin´s son and also Henry´s father..he was on his way to Storybrooke when it happened. Emma has been able to text him to go look for our daughter before we got sent here. And I'm sure Neal has found her. I'm sure he has found her and Henry and that he has been taking care of them ever since."

Regina now broke away from the hug David had pulled her in. "Rumple's son is Henry's father?" She asked confused.

David couldn't help but laugh. "And here I thought you would be happy with the news."

Regina let out a small laugh herself. "I'm sorry. I am. Kind of. I think. I'm still worried, but knowing that she might be safe..that's a good thought. We'll just have to find a way back and then I can hold my babies again." She sighed as she let herself fall back on the bed. "What is it?" She asked as she saw David frown.

David looked at her at the question and took her hands in his. "Regina, I have to tell you something else. But you have to promise me that you won't freak out, because it will all be alright. And you _cannot_ freak out, you _cannot_ lose hope. Because I _cannot_ go through what you put me through when you jumped off that tower again. You must never do that again. Because I love you, and I don't want to lose you. Do you understand me?" And he gave her the most stern look he possessed.

Regina nodded, her chocolate brown eyes big at the sudden lecture. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm sorry I made you scare like that, I'm sorry for everything. But y- you love me? What about Snow?"

David shook his head. "I moved out of Snow's apartment months ago. It wasn't working anymore. We were both too different. It works better now. We're friends. Good friends. And I care a great deal about Snow, but Regina, _you_ are the one I love."

A big smile from ear to ear appeared on Regina's face at this confession. "I love you too." She whispered as she leaned in to kiss him. "Now, what is it you had to tell me?" She asked as she broke away from the kiss.

David sighed. "The time here. It's different from the time _zone_ you could say, in Storybrooke." He looked at Regina to see if she knew this but continued as he saw her confused look. "We found out when we were talking about Snow and Emma's time here. They were under the impression that they had only been here for a week."

Regina shook her head. "No, that doesn't make any sense. They were gone for at least two months."

"That's what we said." David responded. "And then Gold said...he said that it is because this world and that world work in different time zones. Meaning that time passes much faster in Storybrooke than it does here."

Regina's eyes grew wide. "But then...by the time we've found a way to return..they could be...Henry could be..." She started to hyperventilate again.

"Regina! Calm down. Regina you promised me you wouldn't panic." David said firmly, but when he saw his words didn't get through to Regina, he did the one other thing he thought would work in this situation. He kissed her. And it worked, slowly he felt Regina calm down as she leaned in to the kiss and he tasted her salty tears.

He broke the kiss and took her face in his hands. "Hey, listen to me. We'll figure this out. Gold is willing to help us, his son is still there too after all."

Regina couldn't help but smirk at that thought. "O the irony. The man went to all this trouble to make me enact the curse and now he finally has found his son we're back were we started again."

David couldn't help but let out a small laugh too, he then turned to the night stand and held the glass of water that was standing there out to Regina. "Here, you should drink. You've been sleeping for a very long time and there isn't a drip in this land we could put you on, so we have to make sure you don't get dehydrated.

Regina smiled at how caring David was and she set her hands to her sides to pull herself up to be able to grab the glass. However as she placed her weight on her arms she felt a short sting of pain running through the palm of her right hand, as if she had pressed into something sharp. Quickly she pulled her hand away and what she found lying on the mattress of her bed made her eyes grow wide. "O my god." She whispered.

"What is it Regina?" David asked as he put the glass away again and stood up to see what Regina was looking at. Lying on the mattress was a small golden bracelet. David picked up and read what was engraved in the bracelet. "'_Julie'"_ He read. "Nice name. Where does it come from though?" He asked Regina.

"That's – That's our daughter's..." Regina breathed. "In the meadow. She was wearing it. I wanted to read what it said so I removed it from her little arm. I hadn't put it back on yet when I woke up. I thought – I thought I was dreaming, but if I now still have the bracelet with me..." Regina now looked at her night gown and saw there were some grass stains on it now. "...and I have grass stains on my gown..."

"...then maybe it wasn't a dream." David finished the sentence.

**Sooo what do you think ****? I didn't mean this chapter to get so long, but I just had so much to say and it felt better to put it all in one chapter...**

**Please Read and Review because I really need your reviews to continue writing and to think of new ideas I can add. Reading reviews makes me happy ;)!**

**I will reread for spelling and grammar mistakes tomorrow, as usual. Maybe I will update again tomorrow (since I'm down with the flu and suddenly have tons of time that I'm wasting with lying in bed and watching Dance Moms and OUAT episodes :3)**

**Tell me what you think..o and...how would you feel about me starting another Stable Queen fanfiction? Or maybe an Evil Hook one ;)? Let me know.**

**x**

**Metope**


	9. Chapter 9

**I love you**

"Well it wasn't a dream. That's for sure." Blue said as she studied the small bracelet.

"Then what was it?" David asked. He was sitting next to Regina's bed holding her hand as Blue was trying to make sense about what had happened. It had been a week since Regina had seen her daughter. They had decided to keep it quite at first, since they weren't sure if it would happen again. But Regina had returned to the meadow and her daughter several times, and it really seemed to be Julie. Since she was now about 4 months old, which corresponded to the time difference between Storybrooke and the Enchanted forest.

"I'm not sure." Was Blue's response. "It seems to be like some sort of alternate universe in which you can communicate with each other. It's because of the strong connection you share with your daughter."

"Can David see her too then?" Regina asked quietly.

"Possibly. If he opens his mind for it, I think he can."

" But then why can't I see Henry too?"

"I think it is because you don't have a blood bond." Blue said.

"But Emma doesn't see Henry either." David remarked.

"Because Henry isn't a child born from true love, like yours is. Of course Emma loved Neal at the time, but that love has died, and so Henry doesn't have the same special status as your daughter has. It's difficult to explain." Blue added as she saw David's confused look. "It doesn't totally make sense to me too, but these are the only differences I can find between Henry and your daughter that could explain why you can't see him."

Regina slowly nodded. "Okay, so if David opens his mind to the possibility of seeing her he can? It doesn't have something to do with having magic?"

Blue shook her head. "No, not at all."

David smiled. "Thanks Blue. And there was something else you wanted to talk to us about if I'm right?"

The fairy nodded. "Yes." She said as she gave the bracelet back to Regina and went to sit down on a chair nearby. "It's about Cora."

Regina's head snapped up at the mention of her mother. "What about her?" She asked nervously.

David gently squeezed her hand for reassurance, but Regina couldn't help the unpleasant feeling that ran through her body as soon as she thought about her mother.

"We think we have a plan to kill her." Blue started but immediately got interrupted by Regina.

"..kill her? What? You can't do that. You can't kill her." She rattled as her voice sounded an octave higher than normal.

"But Regina..she's the reason we're all here. She's the reason your daughter and Henry are all alone in Storybrooke now. She needs to be punished, this witch will always be a danger to us as long as she lives."

But Regina shook her head. "I agree she's dangerous, and she needs to be punished. But you cannot kill her. She is my _mother_, you can't do that, please." Regina said as tears appeared in her eyes.

"But Regina, then what do you suggest?" David asked as he rubbed circles with his thumb over her hand. Blue looked away at the interaction, as she still wasn't used to this new relationship.

Regina swallowed. "Can't you...can't you stripe her of her magic? Like you did to me once, but then not temporary but permanent this time? It's the magic that's made her like this. Because..when I was little...when she didn't use magic that much yet, she was different. And...I know she can become that person again if she would just get rid of the magic. I- I stopped using magic and I like to think I changed?" She ended hopefully and smiled as she saw how the fairy slowly nodded.

"We could try that indeed." She said. "But I will hold you responsible if it doesn't work." Blue said.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Regina answered and with that Blue left the room again.

"Regina," David started after he had made sure Blue was really gone.

"Hm?"

"What was Cora like before she turned like this?" David felt Regina tense the moment he asked the question and he was afraid she would put her walls back up, but to his surprise she answered him.

"She was my mother." Regina whispered. "She was caring, and she loved me and showed it just like other mothers did. And she would brush my hair every night and we would talk about my day, about my lessons and everything. She was like this until I was about 8 or 9 years old, then it all changed. Suddenly I couldn't play outside with the other kids anymore, I only was allowed to leave the house if it was for my lessons or when I was with her. She grew cold and punished me with her magic as soon as I did something she didn't like. Every day it got worse but I endured it all. Because I had met Daniel, and when I was with him I felt free. But then..." Regina's voice trailed off as she appeared to be lost in thought.

"...she killed him." David finished, and it snapped Regina back to reality as she nodded. "Yes." She replied as a single tear fell down her cheek. "And then...I thought my life had been a hell living with her...but it got worse when I was Queen. At least at home, they noticed me, my mother noticed my existence, always in a negative way, but still. At court...no one paid attention to me. I never could live up to the expectations they had. They expected me to be a second Eva. To be an exact clone of her, and of course I wasn't. So I was just there to take care of Snow and...to produce an heir to the throne..." Regina finished with a shaking breath.

"My father was a kind and fair man." They suddenly heard Snow's voice coming from the door opening.

"I never said he wasn't." Regina said back as Snow entered the room.

"No, but you implied it." Snow answered.

Regina let out a huff.

"See. There you do it again."

"Well maybe that is because you have this really very one sided image of your father in your head, _dear_." Regina sneered. "He may have been fair and kind to you, and o he was, but to me, he was far from it."

"That's because you weren't the wife he needed." Snow answered stubborn.

Regina's mouth fell open at this statement. "Excuse _me_?" She breathed.

"Well yes." Snow continued although she felt slightly less confident at the anger she saw appear in Regina's eyes. "My father needed someone to replace my mother end..."

"_Exactly_." Regina hissed. "He didn't need a new wife. He needed a _replacement_. But the thing is, that's impossible, every person is unique. As for me not being what he needed, I was _seventeen_ and I got married off to a man almost thrice my age, how could I _ever_ be what he needed! Did you ever think about that Snow. While you attended your lovely happy parties when you were seventeen while you played and still enjoyed your childhood I was forced to grow up from one day to another, act like an adult, like a queen, like a mother to a girl only 7 years younger than me. Did it ever come to that pretty little head of you that it was _he_ who made my life even more miserable than it already was? I didn't _exist_ for him, Snow. It was like with my mother, but worse; I was only there if he needed me or if I did something he didn't like. And then... then he wasn't kind or fair at _all_. He- He hurt me..." tears started to fall down her cheeks now and Regina hated herself for crying in front of that ungrateful woman. "... every night he screamed _her _name when he forced himself on me. And of course it was _my_ fault that...that I didn't got pregnant. And later, I thought I couldn't even get pregnant anymore because of what he had done to me. But sure, you just go on believing your father was such a sweet and kind and loving man. I don't care, but _don't_ tell me _I _did this to myself."

"I think it's best if you go now, Snow." David said as he pulled a now heavily sobbing Regina against his chest.

But Snow just stood there, eyes wide as she shook her head. When Regina looked up and still saw the woman standing in the door opening she swiped her hand through the air and with a loud bang the door closed in Snow's face.

"Sshh." David tried to calm Regina. "It's alright, I'm here, you can cry. Just let it out, all of it." He said as he rubbed her back. "You know you can talk to me Regina, about everything. And you _should_. Because unless you're completely open with me, completely honest, we can't defeat Cora. Because she'll have a hold on you as soon as she finds you again. And we need to come up with a plan..."

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Cora let out a frustrated sigh as she let herself fall back in her chair while she stared out the window to the dark night sky. Nothing was going according to plan. Here she was, in the enchanted forest again, without her daughter _again_. Her daughter had rejected her once again, had tried to _kill_ herself. Cora hadn't wanted that to happen at all, she loved Regina, she just wanted what was best for her. And now Regina was with the Charmings once again.

After Regina had jumped she had found herself unable to move, she was too much in shock over the fact that her daughter felt so miserable, that she had felt miserable enough to end her life. But when she had finally managed to find the courage to look over the castle wall she saw nothing, nobody on the floor, just nothing, as if nothing had happened. And then suddenly she had seen them hiding behind the bushes. The saviour, that fairy, and the prince with in his arms Regina. Just as she was about to go down to get her daughter back she felt a rush of magic go through her and gone were the four people. Emma apparently actively used magic now, Cora thought.

It had been three weeks now since Regina had...left...if that even was the appropriate word to use in this situation. Cora got snapped out of her thoughts by footsteps she heard coming from the hallway.

Quickly she walked to the hallway to see who had invaded her castle without her noticing and was surprised to see no one less than Regina standing in the hallway.

So many emotion fled through Cora as she saw her daughter standing there, in a shirt loose white shirt and a brown riding pants. She felt anger because her daughter had done such a thing to her and had left her, but above all she felt happiness that Regina had returned to her and was still alive. And in that moment happiness won from her rational mind as she quickly ran over to the younger woman and pulled her into a tight embrace as she felt a single tear fall down her cheek.

Regina just stood there, she didn't move at Cora's touch, she just stood there, and as Cora took Regina's face in her hands she saw a flicker of confusion in those beautiful brown eyes. "I know you think I don't love you." Cora started with an unsteady voice. "But you have to believe me when I tell you I do. And I've never been as scared as when you jumped from that tower, and you must _never_ _ever_ do that again, for I cannot bear the thought of losing you."

Regina now touched her mother's arms and gave her a genuine smile. "I – Thank you, mother." She then replied happily. And Regina truly was happy with her mother's statement. If she was honest with herself she had expected her mother to be mad at her, anything but not this. It made her feel bad about what she was about to do. They had been only been planning this for a week but had decided they had to act fast. In that week Gold had taught Regina how she could stripe Cora from her powers. The plan was that Regina would first earn her trust, after that it would be easy for her to catch Cora off guard and perform the spell. After that she would call out to Blue who would immediately appear to take care of both Cora, who would be furious, and Regina, who would have used magic again and didn't trust herself. Well, Regina thought ironically, getting Cora to trust her appeared to be easier than expected.

"Why – what made you decide to come back?" Cora asked as she led Regina to where she had been sitting before.

"I missed my mother." Regina sighed. "I didn't want them to take me, in the first place. But I was in too bad a shape to protest." And it wasn't a total lie, she did miss her mother at Snow's palace and she hadn't wanted David and Emma to save her in the first place.

Cora showed a genuine smile at Regina's words. "You're feeling alright now? No...dark thoughts anymore?" She asked carefully.

Regina shook her head. "No mother."

"What made you change your mind? Was it the prince?" Cora asked, and Regina felt that she was at a loss of words for a moment. It had been David, but it had also been the fact that she had finally seen her daughter. Telling this to her mother might bring the both of them in danger. But then again, soon her mother wouldn't be able to form a threat to them anymore, and it was necessary that Cora trusted her fully, so she decided to speak the truth and nodded. "Yes. David helped." Regina said and she couldn't help but smile as she mentioned him. "and...also..." Regina's voice trailed off as she found it hard to continue.

"And also?" Cora asked as she gently touched her daughter's leg in reassurance she could tell.

Regina looked up in her mother's eyes. "I saw...I was able to have contact with..to be with my daughter." She whispered as she anxiously awaited her mother's reaction.

"Ahh in a dream, you mean?" Cora said amused but raised her eyebrows as she saw her daughter shook her head.

"No, mother. I mean I really _saw_ her, and get to hold her and talk to her and.." Regina was having a hard time continuing as sobs prevented her voice from staying steady. "Blue...The Blue fairy, " she corrected herself, for she shouldn't appear to familiar with Blue and the others."She didn't exactly know how it was possible, but when I got to sleep, and she sleeps too, we're able to see each other. And honestly mother, she is so beautiful, and she has the most beautiful smile and I'm convinced that she said mama already although David says that's impossible because she isn't at that age yet for another 5 months, but it's just..." Regina suddenly stopped talking as she realized she had gotten carried away and hadn't watched her mother's reaction for a minute, the woman in front of her was staring at her with a mix of amusement and confusion.

"But Regina, dear, how do you know it is her. You – you've never seen her..."

"- well whose fault is that." Regina sneered but got quite as Cora continued talking choosing to ignore her daughter's comment.

"..the way you talk about the child sounds as if she's at least 5 months instead of three weeks already. A baby can't laugh at you at three weeks Regina, and it will take much longer than five months before she will say her first word. You started talking rather quickly with 11 months, but of course you wouldn't know because you've never raised a baby before." Cora said with a genuine smile.

Regina however was having a hard time to not get angry with her mother as she was treating her like a baby herself. "But mother," she started in the calmest voice she could find in that moment, "what you maybe not know, is that time here doesn't pass with the same speed as it does in Storybrooke. We found that one week here is the same as two months in Storybrooke. So my daughter, is 6 months old already." Regina said with a sad smile. "She's six months old, and alone in Storybrooke, living with I don't know who, because she clearly hasn't died. And I'm not there. Both my children are...not here...and...I am having a very hard time dealing with that...You say you love me, that you are sorry and that you want your daughter back. But I don't _believe_ you, I _can't_ believe you. Because if you really wanted me back, if my rejection really hurts you so much as you say it does. Then I cannot understand how you can take _my_ daughter away from _me_. If you know how much that hurts." Regina let out a shaking breath and waited for her mother's reaction.

Cora shook her head. "I don't know, honestly." She whispered which caused Regina to raise her eyebrows. This was nothing like Cora. It apparently took a suicide attempt for Cora to finally realize how much she hurt her daughter with her actions. "I thought that, if you wouldn't see the child, you wouldn't bond with it."

"I've carried that child for, in this case, eight months! How could you think I _wouldn't_ bond with her. _You_ of all people should understand. You couldn't give me away right after my birth either. I just don't understand mother!" Regina yelled with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry!" Cora yelled back, which shut Regina up immediately, Cora never yelled, accept for that one time in the stables with Daniel, Cora. . .

"What?" Regina asked in an unsteady voice.

Cora stood up from her chair and walked over to Regina's chair and took her daughter's hands in hers. "I- I made so many mistakes, Regina. As I said before, I love you and I'm _sorry_. Sometimes, I – my vision gets blurred and I don't see what's good for you anymore, I only see what we could do what we could achieve together. I don't know how...What?" Cora interrupted herself as her daughter whispered something she couldn't quite hear.

"It's because of magic." Regina whispered. "Before- before you used magic you were different. You were like you are now in this moment. And then you started to use magic more and you became...different." Different was the right word to not upset her mother Regina decided.

Cora slowly nodded.

"Would you give magic up? If you could?" Regina asked carefully. "Like I did for Henry?"

Cora was silent for a while but then nodded. "If that is what would make you happy, I would. If I knew how."

Regina let out a soft smile. "I know a way. I- I can do it. I can do it for you if you want?"

Cora's eyes suddenly hardened. "What?" She asked and the sudden coldness in her voice took Regina aback.

"I – "She swallowed. "Gold, he showed me how to do that. How to stripe someone from its powers."

"So that is what this was all about." Cora said. "You just wanted to have power over me. You really think it would be so easy?" And before Regina knew what was happening she was pinned against the wall through Cora's magic again.

Regina shook her head, fear in her eyes. "No mother, please, listen to me, it's not what you think?"

"O so you didn't come her with the plan to take my magic away?"

"Uh- No, I mean yes, but this, this wasn't ..I wasn't planning on..."

But Cora shook her head. "And here I was thinking you came to me for _me_."

"But mama!" Regina now exclaimed. "I did! They wanted to _kill_ you. But, I couldn't let them do that, because you're my mother and I love you! But this magic, this horrible magic, it makes you evil! This is not who you are, like this you're _not_ my mother. Magic isn't power, magic just ruins everything! Everything! Don't you understand?" She let out a soft whimper as she felt how Cora slowly choked the air out of Regina.

"All this talking about love. Love is weakness Regina. How many times do I have to repeat that before you'll finally get that through your head?"

Regina had a severe coughing fit after Cora released the pressure on her lungs again. "And then why are you doing all of this mother?" She spat back at Cora. "I have heard you saying you love _me_ several times to these past minutes. You say you do all this to me because you love me. If love is weakness, then what are you doing all this for?" Suddenly Regina felt how her mother released her magical grip on her and she got lifted back to the floor. As she looked up in the eyes of the older woman she saw confusion reflected in the dark brown eyes that looked so much like those of her own. "Go to your room." Cora whispered and Regina knew it was best to just do as she was asked. Not upsetting her mother any further was very important, after all it was a miracle her mother didn't lock her up now she knew Regina could do something she couldn't...

**Thank you all for your wonderful reviews on the last chapter! Reading them really makes me happy! I hope you liked this chapter! I'm curious to read your thoughts on the Snow/Regina relationship as well on the Regina/Cora relationship too.**

**I will reread for spelling and grammar mistakes tomorrow as usual.**

**Please R&R! **

**x**

**Metope**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm over it**

When Regina woke up that morning she stayed in bed for a little longer enjoying the silence that was around her, but soon she found the fact that nothing was to be heard rather suspicious than relaxing. The sun that was shining into her room told her it had been day for a while now, and the fact that her mother hadn't come to wake her was to be called odd at least. Cora never slept late, _ever_. Slowly Regina got up out of bed and carefully made her way to where her mother was supposed to be sleeping. She was either still sleeping or up to something, but no matter what, being careful was the key to success. However, when she opened the door to her mother's room and took in what she saw, a penetrating bloodcurdling scream hurtled from her mouth. She immediately ran back to her room and grabbed the necklace she had been wearing the day before. Quickly she pressed her thumb on the blue stone that was in the pendant and immediately both David, Rumple and Blue appeared in her room.

"Regina!" David exclaimed alarmed as he looked around him to see from what danger he had to save her. They had decided Regina would use the pendant if she wouldn't be able to stripe Cora from her powers by herself or would be in serious danger. "Wh-what's wrong?" David asked less alarmed as he saw they were the only ones in the room.

"We're very sorry, dearie, but you're hard to follow talking like this." Gold remarked as he observed a totally panicked Regina standing in front of him. Tears were streaming down her face and she was stammering syllables that were supposed to form words together no doubt, but were completely unintelligible to the three people that had just been summoned to Cora's castle.

"David, you have to calm her down. She's having a panic attack and we don't know where Cora is." Blue said.

"...But we will find out that very quickly if she continues to scream so loud." Gold remarked dryly.

David nodded and tried to pull Regina in his arms but instead she pressed his arms away. "Regina, calm down. Let me hold you, you have to calm down because we can't understand a single thing of what you're trying to say. And if you continue to cry this loudly Cora will find us, where is she now?"

At the mention of Cora Regina started to cry even harder and pointed to the hallway. "She's out there?" David asked but Regina didn't answer, instead she slumped to the ground and curled up in a foetal position while she continued to cry.

"We'll just have to go look for her ourselves; dearie here is of little use." Gold said as he walked in the direction Regina pointed. "I'll stay with her." Blue said as she watched the two man leave Regina's room and bent down next to Regina.

* * *

It didn't take long for David and Gold to come back. "And what did you find out?" Blue asked as she was holding Regina in her arms. Regina's head was resting on Blue's lap, she had stopped crying and was now just staring blankly into nothing, not speaking a word.

"We found her..." David started, Blue noticed the Charming prince looked slightly pale.

"...dead." Gold added, and although it seemed as if he was untouched by what they had discovered, Blue could see he too was shocked.

"O my god." Blue breathed. "Did- Did- "

"No I did not _kill_ her!" Regina suddenly burst out in a high pitched voice as she lifted her head from Blue's lap. "_I_ was the one who didn't want her to be killed. Do you really think I would kill my own _mother_?" Blue was shocked to see so much pain in the brown eyes of the brunette.

"I went to look where she was be-because she hadn't come to wake me." Regina sobbed. "And then when I opened the door she was just lying there on the ground wi- with the ashes of her heart still in her hand and I screamed be-because" Regina choked on a sob and took in a deep breath to get her lungs filled with air again. "because my _mother_ just _killed_ herself, and it is _my fault_." She finished as tears streamed down her face.

"Oh Regina, I'm sorry I didn't mean – Regina where are you going?" Blue asked confused as Regina got up from the ground and walked past David and Gold leaving the room.

"Re- Regina, what are you doing?" David asked confused as he followed Regina. He found her in Cora's room curled up next to the cold body of the woman she called her mother. She had her arms wrapped around Cora's waist and her head in the crook of Cora's neck, while she was silently crying.`

"Regina." David started in a calm voice. "Why do you think it's your fault? What happened yesterday?" First David thought she wasn't going to answer him but then she started talking. "We talked." She said in an unsteady voice. "She said how sorry she was, and that I shouldn't try to kill myself anymore because she couldn't handle that. She said that she loved me...and then we just talked. I told her about Julie and, for the first time, I believed her when she said she cared for me. She apologized for taking Julie away, and she really listened to me and she explained to me how she _felt_. That sometimes she cannot tell what's good and what is right anymore... And then I blew it. I started talking about magic, and that I could take it away for her and she misunderstood. She thought that everything we had just talked about, everything I had said was to lure her into agreeing with me to take her powers. She got mad, she used magic on me, yelling at me that love is weakness..." Regina paused to get a hold of her tears, she was still lying next to Cora while she was looking at her mother's face. "...and I asked her what she was doing to me then. Because she said she loved me. And then...I saw something break inside of her, I saw it in her eyes. She released me and told me to go to sleep, so I did. Although it didn't feel right, I felt confused because of her reaction, something inside me told me to go back and see if she was alright. But I didn't ...and now she's dead."

David's heart hurt at Regina's words. He didn't fully understand how Regina could still feel so much love for a woman that had caused her so much pain time and time again, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that Regina stopped blaming herself and so David walked over to her and gently pulled her away from Cora and pulled her against him. Regina let him as she leaned her head against his chest. "You didn't do this, Regina. You have to get that through your head." David whispered in her ear. "This is a choice Cora made for herself. And I think- I think she did it for you, so you finally can be happy. You say she said she had difficulty telling right from wrong sometimes, she would have never let you take her powers away from her. Perhaps this is best."

Regina let out a sigh. "But I loved her." She whispered.

"I know that, I know." He kissed her forehead. "And that's okay. But you mustn't think it is your fault you did this. Do you hear me?" He took her head in his hands so she had to look at him.

"Yes." She whispered, but David could see in those brown eyes that the message hadn't got fully through yet, it would take time, he knew.

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It would take six months for Regina to get herself back together. First she had been depressed about her mother's passing and just when she seemed to get over it she realized her mother had probably been the only one who knew how to get back to Storybrooke and so she fell back into another depression. And _that_ depression got even worse when she found out she didn't see Julie anymore when she was asleep and David did. Regina was convinced it was because of how she had abandoned her mother, that it was her fault Cora had died and that she therefore didn't deserve to be a mother herself. Blue had tried to talk to Regina, explaining to her that the reason why she couldn't see Julie anymore was because Regina was in a place too dark to still have hope and so she couldn't find the place, she didn't believe in it anymore. Regina stayed in bed for days, no one could get her out of it, not even Emma while she tried to be her most annoying self, until suddenly one day she was there. They were all just discussing Rumplestiltskin's progress on finding a way back as she entered the council room.

"So..what do you have so far." She said in a calm voice.

"Regina." Snow said surprised. "C- Come sit, we were just discussing that." She said, her voice a little bit nervous. Regina smiled and did as Snow told her to.

* * *

"Hey." David said as everyone had left the room but Regina and him, he got up from his chair as did Regina and they walked towards each other. "You're up."

"Hey." Regina said with a smile as she kissed his cheek. "Yes. I'm sorry it took me so long."

"That's okay. I'm just glad you're here now. What made you change your mind?" He rubbed her arms with his hands as he slowly pulled her towards him.

She shrugged. "Everything did. I just- I realized I could either dwell in the past or make something from what my life was right now. And that's you and Henry and Julie and I wasn't there for you, and I'm sorry for that."

"It's okay." David repeated and he kissed her softly. "I missed you."

* * *

**Sorry this chapter is so short, I've been having some problems with my arms lately so I can't type as much as I want to, and that in combination with the fact that I'm supposed to write my bachelor thesis these months _and _I'm having two other stories I have to write for, makes updating a little harder. So I'm very sorry, but I hope you liked this chapter anyways, please let me know.**

**x**

**Metope**


	11. Chapter 11

**How old are you?**

"Julie?" The five year old girl who was playing with her doll in the green meadow looked up when she heard her name. Blue eyes stared up and met equally blue eyes staring back at her.

"Hi." She said with a smile, but the smiling face quickly changed into a face of curiosity. "Who's that?" She asked.

David smiled and softly squeezed Regina's hand. "This, is someone I took with me for today. You've met her before, when you were really little. I think you don't remember anymore. She couldn't come for a while, but now she's back again."

"O." Was all the girl said. "Why couldn't she come?" She then asked. David didn't have an answer for that right away, but luckily he didn't have to because Regina already answered as she walked past David and wen to sit close to Julie.

"I couldn't come." She said in calm voice. "Because I was sick for a while. "

"Oo." The girl said again as she brushed a strand of her dark raven black hair out of her face. "But now you're better again?"

Regina nodded. "Yes. And I really wanted to see you again. I thought maybe we could play together this time, the three of us?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "Yes! I'd like that." She said in a high children's voice. "What's your name?"

"I'm Regina."

"I'm Julie. Do you want to play with my dollie? Or not? My mommy never wants to play with my dollie, she says I'm too big for dolls." The girl rambled.

"Too old for dolls? You're never too old for dolls." David said as he joined Regina and Julie.

"Mommy says I am. She says I cannot play with them anymore, unless I behave." She pouted.

"Oh, you don't behave then?" Regina asked trying to hide the amusement in her voice as she looked at the little frown on the girls face.

"But I do!" Julie suddenly yelled at Regina with tears in her eyes. "I weally try to be good, to be a good girl. But sometimes I can't help the funny purple spawkles. They just happen. I didn't do it on purpose!"

Regina's eyes widened. "Wh- what kind of purple sparkles do you mean Julie?" But the girl shook her head as she sobbed softly.

"You can tell me, it's okay. I won't get mad." Julie still shook her head.

"Did they – " Regina hesitated for a while if it was okay to do this, if she was wrong she would probably only scare the child. But with one look at the sobbing girl she knew that if she was right she had to help her. "- did the sparkles look like these?" She asked as she conjured a little purple magic in her right hand.

Julie's eyes went wide as she saw the purple sparkles that caused her so much trouble before on the woman's hand. "Yes that are the sparkles!" She gasped. "How do you do that? My big brother says I'm really special that I can do that. That there is no one else who can do it."

"Your big brother?" David now asked. "Julie had never spoken about him before, usually she didn't talk so much about her home.

The child nodded. "His name is Henwy. He's weeeaaaallly big. He's sixteen and he goes to a _big_ school and he is weally smart, he knows evewything!" Her eyes sparkled when she started talking about Henry.

Regina was having a hard time keeping the tears at bay when her daughter mentioned Henry. It meant he was okay and she called him her brother, he was looking after her.

"Does Henry live with you and your parents?" David asked with a smile on his face as well.

The girl shook her head. "No he lives with uncle Neal, that's his daddie." She said.

"Oh I see. But Henry is your brother anyways?" David asked.

"Yes." The girl said firmly. "And he says the spawkles aren't bad like mommy things. He says I can do that because my mommy could too."

A small gasp escaped from Regina's lips, had Henry talked about her to Julie? "But you just said your mommy doesn't like it when you show the sparkles?"

"Yes that's my _other_ mommy." The girl said impatiently as if all she said made total sense. "I mean my weal mommy. Henwy says I look like her and that I can do the same as she can." Probably more, Regina thought, she hadn't shown any signs of magic before her tenth birthday. Suddenly Julie stopped talking and crept closer to Regina and softly put her hands on Regina's cheeks.

Regina wasn't quite sure what the child was doing but she decided she would just let her for a while. She felt how the soft little hands touched her cheeks as a pair of blue eyes stared intently at her. After a while she grabbed a strand of Regina's hair and a strand of her own and brought them together, a difference in colour was not to be found. She then set a few steps back.

"Are you my weal mommy?" She asked in a small voice.

Regina didn't know what to say and her eyes sought for David's, he gave her encouraging nod, seeing that she didn't know what to do.

Regina swallowed. "Yes Julie. I am." The bright smile that appeared on the girl's face made that Regina couldn't keep her tears back any longer, causing the girl's smile to disappear right away. "Are you not happy that you're my mommy?" She asked.

Regina shook her head. "No, no honey. I'm not crying because I am sad. I'm crying because I am just so happy that I have found you again." She said through her tears as she smiled at the girl.

"Oh." Julie said and then started to fidget with the sleeves of her t-shirt. "What is it sweetie?" Regina asked as she saw something was bothering her daughter.

Blue eyes looked up and Regina thought once again that the little frown on her face was too adorable. "Can I – give you a hug?" She then asked.

"Of course you can." Regina said, a little surprise in her voice. "You didn't have to ask that, come here." And she opened her arms.

The girl quickly leaned in to her and snuggled against Regina's chest. "My other mommy doesn't want to cuddle. When I was little she did, but since I can do the purple spawkles she doesn't anymore."

"Well you don't have to ask me for a hug, or David." Regina said softly as she looked over to David who was watching the two with a smile on his face. "Hé Julie…" Regina started.

"Yes?"

"Why did you think I was your mommy?"

"Because you look like me." She stated.

"Aha I see." Regina responded. "But we don't have the same eyes, do we?"

The girl shook her head. "No, mine are blue and yours are bwown.." She said as she started to suck on her thumb.

"O sweetie don't do that, it ruins your teeth." Regina said as she softly pulled the thumb out of Julie's mouth.

"That's what my other mommy says to." Julie says surprised.

"Well your other mommy is right then." Regina said with a smile. "But, about the eyes. How do you think it is possible that you have another eye color?"

Julie had to think about this for a while. "Because…Because of my other daddy?" She then asked.

"Exactly." Regina said with a smile. "Now who do you think your other daddy is?"

Julie turned a little in Regina's lap so she could look at her. "David?" She asked with big questioning eyes.

Regina shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. Maybe you should take a close look at his eyes to see if they are the same as yours and ask him?"

"Yes." Julie whispered as she crawled out of Regina's lap and walked over to David. For a while she studied his face and then slowly her lips formed into a happy smile as she wrapped her little arms around his neck. "I've found my mommy and my daddy in one night." She sighed and David happily wrapped one arm around his daughter as he pulled Regina closer to him with the other.

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"What do you mean it will take at _least_ a year before we can return?" Regina said in a high pitched voice as she slammed her fist on the council table. "That's too long! There has to be another way."

"I'm afraid there is not, dearie." Gold answered. "The only way out is through a portal created by a magic bean. Anton has one sapling left. For the beans to grow we first have to have a fully grown bean stock. That alone will take about a year, after we have to grow new beans and that will take a couple of months and _then_ we can open a portal."

A frustrated whimper escaped Regina's lips as she fell back in her chair, David rubbed her back to calm her down. "And you are sure there is no other way?" He asked.

The blue fairy was to answer now. "He is speaking the truth. There really is no other way."

"Is the sapling planted already?" Emma asked.

"I have found a good piece of land to plant it in, but I haven't planted it yet." Anton now answered.

"Well then what are we waiting for." Emma growled. "Let's plant the damn thing. I want to get back to my son, who will probably be not much younger than me by the time we get there." She sighed as Snow softly squeezed her hand.

"Twenty-seven." Regina whispered.

"I'm sorry what did you say Regina?" Emma asked.

"Twenty-seven." Regina repeated herself as she looked at Emma with fear in her eyes. "He will be twenty-seven by the time we get to him. If it takes as long as Gold says we will be here for two years by the time we can go back. One week here is two months there, meaning one month here is 8 months there. Three months here is two year there, meaning one year here will be eight years there and so two years here will be 16 years there. Henry was eleven when we…left…so he will be 27 when we get back to him. While you will be 31. Julie will be sixteen, David will be 33 and I will be 37…"

"O my god Grumpy get over here with your money!" Ruby suddenly yelled.

"Huh what on earth..?" Emma said as she saw how Grumpy indeed got his wallet and handed Ruby a few coins. "What's going on?"

Ruby turned red, but Grumpy, the word shame or discretion not in his dictionary, answered: We had made a bet about Regina's age. Ruby said you couldn't be older than 35, I said you were forty at least."

Regina turned red at this news but couldn't help but smile as the rest of the council did too. "Well technically dear..I am sixty-three if you take the cursed years into account." She pulled a face after she had said this. "I don't want to think about this." She sighed.

"Don't worry dear, I still think you're beautiful." David said overly sweet.

"How old are you for real Gold?" Ruby asked.

Regina couldn't help but let out a laugh at that question. "I think he's about 200 or something?" She said teasingly.

"Close dearie, very close, but you're not right." Gold answered.

"Then how old are you?" Snow now asked as she was genuinely interested now.

"I'm not going to say it." He answered.

"O don't be such a spoilsport." Ruby whined but the imp shook his head.

"Blue knows." Regina remarked. "After all she's just as old."

Blue nodded. "Which is exactly why I'm not going to tell you." She said and before they could talk her into telling them anyways she got up from her chair. "I think this council meeting is over, Anton you plant the sapling and then we just have to be patient." She sighed.

**Here you go ****!**

**Please read and review! **

**I'm thinking of maybe ending this story sooner than I had planned for it seems there aren't many people still reading this story? If that's not the case..proof me wrong ;)**

**X**

**Metope**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ahh so there DO are people who still read this story :D! Thank you all for your sweet reviews! I feel much more motivated to continue this story now :D!**

**Fake**

"But that's not fair!"

"Well young lady, you tell me what's not fair then. You broke _four_ plates, four _expensive_ plates, so I think it's only fair that as a punishment you're not allowed to stay up late tonight."

"But you promised!"

"And you promised you wouldn't do whatever it is you do anymore."

"But I didn't do it...not on purpose...you startled me and then they just broke, I didn't even touch them!" Tears now appeared in the girl's eyes. "I'm sorry mother, I – I didn't do it on purpose. I really didn't!"

"And yet it happens again and again, Julie. Don't cry, oh come here, don't cry sweetie."

Eight year old Julie happily returned the hug her mother now gave her as she sobbed into her mother's arms. "I'm trying to control it, I really am." She sniffed. "I'm learning, I'm progressing."

"What do you mean you're learning? Who's learning you Julie?"

"In my dreams...I learn in my dreams." Julie felt her mother's arms wrap tighter around her.

"You're a special girl Julie." Her mother sighed.

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Months had passed and the bean stock was finally finished growing. "Good luck!" Regina said excitedly as Anton, Emma and David started to climb up the stock. Together they would plant the beans, Anton would stay up to take care of the beans while they were growing.

"Hi dear, how are you?" Regina asked happily when she and David entered the meadow and saw their now ten year old daughter waiting for them.

"What's wrong honey?" David asked when he saw how Julie didn't smile when she met them but looked serious at them, almost as if she was angry.

"You're not real." Julie replied.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, what do you mean by that?" Regina asked while she walked over to her daughter to hug her. Julie, however, stepped away from Regina's arms while she shook her head.

"Don't touch me please. You're not real, I need you to go away."

"Julie..." Was all Regina said in a hurt voice.

"Julie, that's not very nice to say to your mother. And what is all that nonsense about us not being real suddenly? What happened?"

"Yes, Julie, we _are_ real." Regina now said. "I thought you understood, I thought we explained everything to you? About what happened to us? And that we're working on a way to get back to you _and_ Henry. As a matter of fact, your father has planted the bean just today and – "

"Stop it!" Julie now said angrily. "This is all fake! These are my dreams, _you_ only exist in my dreams! You're telling me you'll come for me for as long as I can remember and yet I still haven't seen you when I'm _awake_!"

"But – That's because of the different time zones, dear." Regina tried. "I know that's difficult to understand but maybe Henry can – "

"Henry says your fake." Julie now said.

Regina gasped and David quickly grabbed her hand and squeezed it a little to reassure her he was there. "You must have misunderstood whatever Henry has said, Julie." He said.

Julie shook her head. "I don't think so. Henry said I have to grow up. That I'm ten years old now and that I have to stop believing in these childish fairy tale-like dreams. That's exactly what he said."

"Wh- Why would Henry say such a thing." Regina now whispered more to herself than to Julie, a tear falling down her face.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because he's right?" Julie said angrily. "I'm ten indeed and I'm over believing in fairy tales and everything! I mean come _on_! You really expect me to keep believing in _you_ two with your weird story about portals and magic and time zones and your _super_ weird medieval looking clothes!? You're just a way for me to deal with my problems back home."

"What problems.." Regina whispered.

"What problems? What PROBLEMS? The fact that I'm weird for example? I'm not _normal_ I break things by just _looking _at them when I'm angry, stuff like that! And it all has to stop, starting with you two. Because maybe when I stop seeing you, maybe the rest will go away then too and then maybe my mother won't look at me anymore like I'm some weird creature anymore, maybe she and my father won't be afraid of me anymore. Because they are, you know, they say they aren't, but I can see it in their eyes."

"But Julie, that's because they don't know about magic and our world." David started. "Neal and Henry do, they don't treat you differently because of what you can do, do they?"

Julie shook her head. "That's because they just played along with it, but Henry now said it is enough, so it is. So this is a goodbye and I'm going to wake myself up now, and when I go back to sleep you're gone, deal?"

"No, Julie, don't do that, Julie!" Regina cried but the girl that looked so much like her just shook her head, anger and pain in her blue eyes while she pinched her arm and slowly started to fade and was gone within seconds.

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Regina woke up with a start her cheeks wet with tears, when she looked beside her she saw David was awake too. "David." She said with a strangled voice. "Please, _please_, tell me you were awake all the time and that what I just saw, what just happened, was just a bad dream?"

David now sat up and pulled his beloved Queen towards him. "I'm sorry Regina...I'm so sorry." He whispered while she broke down and cried in his chest.

"Do you think she's really gone?" Regina asked David when she had calmed down a little.

David shook his head. "I don't know..I really don't know. I think we can only hope we will see her tomorrow night again."

But Regina and David didn't see Julie the following night, or the night after that, or the night after that. It appeared that Julie had really given up on them.

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"Hey, your early." Henry said.

"Yes, our teacher got sick, flu or something, what are you doing?" Julie said while she dumped her bag in the hallway and went to sit next to Henry.

"Studying, I have a giant midterm exam tomorrow."

"What about?"

"Oh just, the usual complicated medicine stuff. I won't bother you with it. You're not sounding too happy for a girl who has no school anyways. What's wrong?" Henry now looked up from his medicine book to watch his sister. Her normally bright and sparkling blue eyes seemed dull.

Julie shrugged. "Nothing.." She said quietly. "Is uncle Neal still working?"

"Yes he is, he works till five usually."

Julie suddenly got up from her chair and wrapped her arms around Henry. "I missed you." She whispered.

Henry first tensed a little but then returned the hug with a soft smile. "Hey there little one, what's this all of the sudden? What happened in my absence?"

Julie shrugged. "Nothing, just, I did what you said...and...besides..you're my brother, I can hug you whenever I want."

"O...and you didn't see them after you...did what I said?" He felt his sister shook her head while she was still holding him. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. He had really hoped the Regina and David Julie saw in her dreams were real. But if she didn't seem anymore now she had decided for herself they were fake then they apparently really were. Else she would have continued to be able to see them right? It would most certainly explain why _he_ couldn't see them in his dreams, he thought.

"I'm sorry, Julie." He said softly.

"It's okay. I just hope the rest will go away now too." She said.

"I hope so too." Although Henry didn't think that would happen, not as long as she would stay in Storybrooke at least.

"When do you have to get back to campus again?" Julie asked.

"I'm going back after the weekend again." Henry said.

"Ah nooo, so soon already?" Julie whined.

"O it isn't that bad." Henry soothed. "And uncle Neal is still here for you if you want to talk about anything?"

"That's not the same." Julie pouted.

"Well then how about we'll just go do all sorts of fun things together this weekend? Make this a brother and sister weekend? Would you like that?"

Julie nodded happily. "Yes, I would like that very much!"

"Good." Henry said. "Then you have to let me study for now, because I really have to pass this midterm exam too."

"Ok. I'll let you study then. I think I'll just go home now, maybe call a friend or something."

"Ok. I'll see you soon Julie and remember, I love you!"

"I love you too Henry!" The girl said as she happily left Henry alone to his thoughts. His thoughts that were keeping him from his study books at this very moment, had he done the right thing when he told Julie she had to end things with this dream-Regina and David?

**I'll try to update as soon as possible, please let me know what you think! I need the reviews to keep me motivated to update this story!**

**x**

**Metope**


	13. Chapter 13

**One down three to go**

"Will the portal stay open for long?" Emma asked nervously while she, her parents, Regina, Blue and Gold were standing with Anton in the palace garden staring at the bean in Anton's hand.

" Usually the portals stay open for about a week." Anton said. "So I guess it will be the same for this one?"

"You _guess_ it will be the same?" The blonde asked but the former giant just shrugged.

"Are there any _rules_ we need to know about?" Snow now asked to Blue and Gold.

"There is one rule, yes." Gold now said. "You can just 'toss around people through the realm."

"The same number of people that go through has to come back.." Regina stated.

"Ah of course, how could I forget, you already know about that through your many adventures with Jefferson." Gold said which earned him a sarcastic smile from the former Evil Queen. "Then I assume you've already thought about a way to get Henry, your daughter and Bae to this land with us?" The imp continued.

Regina nodded. "Yes I did as a matter of fact." She turned around and looked to a couple of trees. "You can come out now." She called.

"You're gonna bring trees with us?" Emma asked confused. "Oh – " She said when she saw Grumpy, Nova and Whale coming from behind the trees, they were all wearing clothes from Storybrooke, just like the other five adults planning on travelling.

"These three, " Regina said. "Would rather want to leave in the other world. So Bae, Julie and Henry will take their place."

The next moment Snow, Blue and David all started talking which made their actual words incoherent but the main message was: "No, why?"

Whale sighed. "I've never liked magic, this world- magic is all it has. I'm not from here, science is what I'm interested in, and as you all know Storybrooke is much more adapted to that than this world."

"As for us." Nova said. "In this land I'm a fairy and Dreamy is a dwarf. That means we can't be together. In Storybrooke I'm just Nova and Dreamy is Leroy and we can be together. So we decided we want that rather than stay here."

"Even though you were so eager to return, at first?" Snow asked with sad eyes.

Grumpy nodded and Snow sent him a smile in return. She didn't want to lose her friend but if it was anyone it was she who understood that they wanted to be together.

"Well, that's all settled then. Let's go." Gold said eagerly as he gestured to Anton to open the portal.

The giant waited for the other adults to nod in agreement while they formed a big circle. Anton threw the bean in the middle and the moment it touched the ground a big swirling purple portal opened.

"Well people, this would be the moment for you all to jump in." Anton said as he gestured to the portal. The adults nodded as while Snow counted to three. On three they all jumped and soon all the giant and Blue could see was the purple portal where the others just had disappeared through.

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"O my god I never thought I would miss this well as much as I do." Emma said as she was the last one to climb out of it.

"There is still magic here." Regina said surprised.

Gold nodded. "There is indeed, which might come in handy." He said as he conjured a couple of mobile phones for everyone. "I suggest we split up to investigate who live in Storybrooke nowadays, who is in charge and when we find Henry, Bae or Julie we'll call each other."

Snow nodded. "Sounds like a good plan indeed." She then turned towards Whale, Nova and Leroy. "Well I guess this is where we will say goodbye, at least for now?"

The dwarf nodded. "Yes, we're planning on going to Boston."

"I'm going to check if they still need doctors at the hospital." Whale said.

David nodded. "Good luck." He said with a genuine smile.

"Good luck to you all too." The doctor answered and then turned around and started to walk to the nearest road.

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"It's summer here." Snow remarked after they had walked for a while, they had almost reached the diner. On their way they had passed several people who had all smiled kindly to them.

"No shit Sherlock." Emma said while she had already rid herself of her new leather jacket – Emma couldn't be happier she had one again. Suddenly Emma heard her phone ring, the phone Gold had given them to call when one of them had found someone...

Regina slowed down her speed once she and David passed her old house. Other people now lived in it she saw, she swallowed. David who noticed softly squeezed her hand, just as she decided to continue walking the door opened and a man in jeans and a t-shirt and brown hair appeared. "Mom? David?" He said with big eyes as he quickly walked down the path towards Regina and David.

"Henry.." Regina gasped and she left David practically running to her son. When she reached him he wrapped his strong arms around her and lifted her in the air.

"You're back. You really found a way." He said in a low adult voice. Regina said something incoherent through her tears.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't really make anything out of that mom." Henry said with an amused smile as he pushed her a little away from him so he could look at her.

Regina sighed. "I said – "She started. "I said that I'm mad at you for being so extremely tall, I'm almost breaking my neck when I want to look you in the eyes." She laughed when Henry hugged her once more at this.

"Henry." David now said, because it was all he could think of to say seeing his grandson. Henry now gave him a short hug – not too long, they were guys after all. "But it's true then." Henry now said. "Julie did really see you in her dreams. Because, you have hardly aged."

David nodded as he walked over to Regina and wrapped an arm around her waist. "And you're still together too." He remarked with a slightly raised eyebrow, the other one raised when he saw Regina blush. Regina didn't blush, he had never seen his mother blush.

"Uhm let's go inside." Henry continued. "So we can talk."

Regina looked around in the place that once was her living room. It looked fairly the same, furniture was still in the same place, only its style had changed to a more masculine style.

David was the first to talk. "Yes it was all true Henry. The- our worlds lay in different time zones. One week in the enchanted forest means two months in this world."

"I see..." was all Henry could say. "And I told her it wasn't true.." He then said, and she didn't come to visit you anymore, the sadness in David and his mother's eyes told him he was right.

"H- How is she Henry?" Regina asked in a soft voice.

"She is sixteen..she's a teenager...things are tough between her and her parents." Henry noticed the slight wince in David and Regina's face when he talked about her parents but chose not to react on it. "I _think_ she has a boyfriend now, although I'm not sure, she's trying to keep it a secret because she's afraid her parents won't approve. I'm not sure though because it's actually quite a coincidence I'm here. I – I live in Boston now, with my – wife and she uhm she's pregnant now, nine more weeks to go, and I'm a doctor at the hospital there...Neal now lives here, he is ironically the sheriff of this town, he's working at the moment." Henry blurted out which caused him to get another hug from a teary Regina.

"I'm so proud of you." She sighed.

"I'm sorry mom." Henry said. "I'm sorry for taking Julie away from you while you would have had a chance to see her grow up from a girl to the wonderful teenager she is now."

"It's okay Henry." David said. "You didn't know. And it doesn't matter, we're here now."

Henry nodded. "Are you two the only ones who come here?" He then asked.

Regina's face brightened at his question. "No, no Snow and Emma and Gold came too. O we should call them, we promised to call them once we found one of you." She explained and she quickly got her phone to tell Emma the wonderful news that she had found their son who had grown up to be this wonderful man.

**Sorry a rather short chapter but I'm struggling like HELL with this story ****! Any suggestions would be wonderful!**

**x**

**Metope**


	14. Chapter 14

**I missed you so much**

When the doorbell rang Regina gave Henry an encouraging smile. "You open the door, I'm sure that will be Emma and Snow." She said and she leaned smiling against David as she saw her son get up from the couch and quickly walk to the front door.

However when Henry opened the door it wasn't his mother and grandmother he saw standing there but his little sister with a tear stained face, who wrapped her arms around him the moment she saw him and sobbed in his chest.

"Julie.." Henry stammered. "What is it? What's wrong? What happened?" Julie stammered something incoherent but from the few words Henry could decipher he understood her boyfriend – so he had been right about that – had broken up with her.

"Julie, calm down. Calm down please. I can hardly understand a thing you're saying." He now said as he softly rubbed her back while he led her into the house and closed the front door again.

"I'm so glad you're home" Julie sobbed while she pulled away from her brother a little. "You and Neal are the only one who care about me." And then she buried her face in his shirt again.

"Henry? Is everything okay? Are Emma and Snow…oh…." Regina stopped talking as soon as she rounded the corner and saw Henry with his arms wrapped around a young girl with black hair who was crying into his chest. When the girl looked up after hearing her voice, and Regina stared in a pair of bright blue eyes she couldn't help but smile at the girl. "Julie…" She whispered.

Julie just stared back at the woman standing a few meters away from her. After a while she looked back at Henry. "Henry, " She started. "I think I'm hallucinating or something..because I see…I see…the…my…."

"You're seeing your mother standing there in the hall." Henry finished her sentence.

"But that can't be true…This can't be real." Panic was audible in the girl's voice.

"Why don't we go to the living room to sit down so the four of us can have a talk about this." Henry suggested as he pushed his sister towards the mentioned room.

"Four of us?" Julie asked confused, but she understood the moment she saw David sitting on the couch waiting for Regina and Henry to come back.

* * *

The moment he saw his daughter enter the room the same smile of happiness that had graced Regina's face earlier now appeared on his face. Entering the room was a younger version of the woman he was in love with, but with blue eyes. Her dark hair was up in a pony tail and she was wearing a dark colored jeans, a grey shirt and a black leather jacket. He watched her as she uncomfortably sat down on one of the chairs as Regina sat down next to him and Henry took the other chair in the room.

"How can you be here? Who are you?" His daughter then asked in a small voice.

Regina nor David really knew what to say so he was glad Henry answered instead of them. "These are your parents Julie. I think they've told you the story in your dream-moments together. I'm not sure if they included me in it all, but to me they are my grandfather and my adoptive mom. They told you about the curse and the fairy tales right?" He asked when he saw his sister's confused face and continued when she nodded. "Then you know about how Regina once was the Evil Queen and how she cursed the people of the enchanted forest to this land where the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming – David here – Emma, who is my biological mother, broke the curse after 28 years. During these years David and Regina developed a relationship that continued after the curse broke, while my mom tried to change. However, then Cora, the queen of hearts and Regina's mother, turned up in Storybrooke and was doing everything to control Regina and take over Storybrooke. She.."

Henry stopped as he saw Regina holding up her hand. "Henry, can I – can I continue to tell the story now?" She asked in a soft voice and she smiled thankfully as her son nodded.

Regina sighed and looked in her daughter's eyes. The girl was frowning a little, trying to understand everything again. "My mother…when she found out I was pregnant…she was quite happy. She didn't know who the father was, but she wanted to make me a queen again and now we would have an heir ready. However, when she found out it was your father everything changed. David originally was a shepherd, and that wasn't good enough for my mother. For eight months – you were born a month early, it's probably why you're so small – she played along, but then when my waters broke…." Regina took a deep breath and David rubbed her back to comfort her a little. "She….she took you away from me the minute you came into the world. First you didn't cry and…and I thought she was trying to…to make you better…to help you. But when I heard you cry, and Cora didn't answer and I couldn't see you anymore I tried to get to her. But I was too late, I saw her standing in the hall here, holding a bundle in pink blankets that was assumingly you, and when I asked her what she was doing she said the child of a peasant…the child of a peasant wasn't good enough and that she had made a deal with Rumplestiltskin to give you to him. I tried to keep her from going but I was too weak and she left, she left before I had even had the chance to see you." Tears were now streaming down Regina's face and sobs were racking her body. David took her in her arms while he continued the story. "We, Snow and Leroy – one of the dwarfs – and Ruby and I found your mother outside making her way – no, _crawling_ her way to Gold's shop to save you. When she saw me she begged me to go after her to get you – I hadn't known about Regina being pregnant the whole time, so imagine how confused I was when I found out I had a daughter that was about to be sold to Rumplestiltskin. Fortunately for us Rumplestiltskin was out of town, so Leroy and I decided to wait here for Cora to come back. When she got back she was furious and she knocked us out with her magic…"

"In the mean time me, Emma and Gold came back from New York and found out that mom was in the hospital with Snow and Ruby. We quickly went over there and not long after Cora showed up. She froze everyone in the room and then teleported me and mom to the well in the forest. I thought she was planning on only taking me and mom back to the enchanted forest, so when mom woke up and I told her, she managed to send me to outside of Storybrooke so I wouldn't be affected by the curse sending us all back, she hadn't had enough strength to bring herself to safety too. Emma had texted Neal in the meantime to look out for a baby somewhere on the road because we had learned Cora had left you there when she couldn't find Rumple. When the curse was enacted it turned out that Cora's plan had been to send all of us back and when the purple cloud cleared it were only me, you and Neal who were left, everyone else was gone."

"In the forest I quickly went with Emma and the Blue fairy to the castle Cora was hiding to free Regina. Regina, she was, heartbroken that she had lost her children…and…well eventually we succeeded in saving Regina and getting rid of Cora." David now said, there was no need to tell them how Regina had tried to kill herself and how Cora had succeeded in committing the task, he thought.

"And then…I met you." Regina continued with a small smile on her face as she looked with soft eyes at her daughter, she wanted to walk over to Julie, since there were tears streaming down the girls face, but something told her it was better to continue the story first. "The first time you were just a baby, it was only a few days after we were back in the enchanted forest again. First I thought it was a dream, but when I woke up I was still holding the golden bracelet with your name on it in my hands, and I knew it wasn't a dream, that it was real. And I was so happy. However, after my mother died I got depressed, and because of that I wasn't able to visit you anymore, it took me months to recover and the first time I saw you again you were five years old…and from then on…we met almost every night. We figured out we were living in different time zones and we started to make a plan to get back to you, like we told you. The…the last time we saw you we had just planted the bean..I had wanted to tell you but…"

"But I refused to see you again." Julie now spoke, her voice thick with tears she was trying to hold back. "

"Oh Julie, don't be mad with yourself for that. I- we can understand how unreal everything must have sound back then." David said softly.

"O I'm not mad at myself…" Julie started and then sighed. "Okay, I am a little. But the person I'm mostly angry with is my so-called _brother_." A soft gasp escaped Regina's lips as she saw an anger burning in the girls eyes so very familiar to the anger she could feel.

Julie now got up from her chair. "Cause to sum everything up. _You_ are the grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming, who happens to be my dad, and are the adoptive son of my mother who is also the step mother of your grandmother and then _you_ dare to tell _me_ I'm crazy and have to grow up instead of believing the _fake_ dreams I was having about my real parents! You've kept me away from them for _six YEARS Henry! _How could you! Were you jealous or something that I could communicate with them while you couldn't? Well? _Why_ did you do that to me! I trusted you! You were the only one here I thought I could tell everything too without having to be afraid that you would think I was crazy, or that you would lie to me, and now I find out you've lied to me my entire _life_!"

"Julie I – I'm sorry." Henry started with sad eyes.

"Sorry is NOT good enough!" The girl yelled at him with tears in her eyes.

"Regina, maybe you should do something." David whispered to her while they watched with big eyes how purple wind was whirling around their daughter and how her blue eyes had changed purple.

"She's so powerful…" Regina whispered. "She has to learn to control it.." And with that she stood up from the couch and walked over to her daughter. When she touched Julie's right arm the girl first jerked away but Regina didn't let go of her. The older woman went to stand in front of her daughter which caused the purple mist to whirl around Regina now too and grabbed her daughter's hands with her own.

"Julie." She started while she looked intendly in her daughter's eyes. "I need you to take a deep breath and calm down. I need you to get control over the anger and the power and the magic that is flowing through your body because the magic is taking control over you and that's not okay. You might hurt someone like this."

Julie shook her head as tears streamed down her face. "But I'm so angry." She cried. "He took you away from me!"

"No he didn't honey." Regina said with sad eyes as tears started to fall down her own face too. "He did what he thought was best for you. Henry didn't know about the time zones so to him it all sounded just as unreal as to you, except for the fact that he didn't get too see us. He was just trying to make things better between you and your adoptive parents."

"But I missed you so much." The girl sobbed and at that Regina set a step closer to the girl and took her daughter in her arms. The moment mother and daughter were finally reunited the purple wind lay down and all that could be heard was the sobs of the girl crying in her mother's arms…

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**There you go , a new chapter. I hope you liked it ****. I'm sorry it took me so long to update. It's just that I've been terribly busy and will be busy the following weeks too. I hope I can update my other two stories: Nothing can part us (StableQueen) and We promised to take care of each other (HookedQueen and non-romantical ThiefQueen) in this week or the next.**

**Please leave me a review ****!**

**x**

**Metope**


	15. Chapter 15

**I'm home**

David quickly joined in the hug Regina and Julie were sharing and Regina reached her hand out for Henry. The moving moment was quickly disrupted however when they all heard the front door open en Neal's voice calling for Henry.

"Henry! Come quick. You'll _never_ guess who I ran into on my way home.

"Let me guess dad, you found my mom, Snow and your dad?" Henry said with a smile when he opened the door to the hallway and saw Neal standing there, indeed together with Emma, Snow and Gold.

"Henry!" Snow and Emma cried out in unison as they made their way over to him and both pulled him into a loving hug. Tears were running down both women's faces.

"Mom, grams, you're hugging me very tight at the moment." Henry stammered. "Very tight..as in...can't...breathe." Mother and daughter released him at this statement and they all laughed.

"My God you're so tall!" Emma exclaimed.

Henry grinned. "That's what mom said too when she saw me." It was only now Henry mentioned Regina, the three of them noticed Regina, David and Julie being in the room too.

"Ah." Mister Gold said. "I already thought you would be here, I felt a strong sense of foreign yet familiar magic coming from here, must have been the young miss...Nolan? Mills? Charming? What is it?"

Julie's face turned red at the comment. "Here I am Julie Williams." She said softly and it struck the new people in the room how much her voice sounded like Regina's. "But I would love to be Julie..."

"Nolan." Regina said with a smile. "You're also Julie Nolan if you want to be."

Julie nodded happily and rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

"Oh god, I'm so happy that everyone has found each other again." Snow sobbed. "Now we can all go back home."

"Home?" It sounded from three voices, as Julie, Henry and Neal all looked with a question look at Snow.

"Well yeah. That's what this was all about after all." Snow said. "To get you three back."

"I- I'm sorry, but I can't go back with you all."Henry now said. "I'm married, I have a wife, and soon we will be a family."

"But..." Snow started but her voice trailed off when she saw Neal looking to the ground too, signalling he didn't really feel for leaving either.

"Emma, you say something." Snow said in a slightly panicked voice.

Actually Snow- mom, dad.." Emma started. "I would like to stay here...I've had my share of Enchanted Forest. I don't belong there, it doesn't feel like home."

"But Emma, the enchanted forest is our home. It's where we _live_. Were I will live, where your father will live with Regina and Julie and – "

"Uh...I'm not planning on going anywhere. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to live in some forest without indoor plumbing and weird medieval clothes." Julie now piped up. "I've got my friends here, and my parents.." She immediately regretted those words when she saw the pain shoot through Regina's and David's eyes. "...and..." she then continued. "I really want to go live with you two. But _here_. Not there. We could move. I figured I don't have problems controlling magic when I am outside Storybrooke, it's because there isn't magic in the rest of the world right?" The girl asked and continued when Regina nodded in confirmation. "Well then we could like, move away from here. The three of us, or you could come with us, and we would have no problems with me being weird and..please stay here with us?" Julie pleaded.

Regina looked at David, who looked first back at her and then at Emma, Gold and finally at Snow. The entire room was silent for several minutes after which Snow let out a heartfelt sigh. "Fine." She said. "After all, home is where my family is, and if you all want to stay here, then I will stay too. And as Julie said, indoor plumbing ain't that bad either." She smiled softly and Julie let out a cry of happiness.

"But Julie...what about your adoptive parents?" Regina asked softly. "You can't just leave you, you're legally their daughter, and I am sure they love you too, just as much as we do."

Julie shook her head. "First of all they're not my adoptive parents, they are just really determined foster parents. They scared of me and don't understand me, yet they wouldn't send me back because they 'have made a commitment', as they put it. They will only be happy you returned." She sighed and she leaned in to David when he gently stroked her hair.

"I'm sure that's not true, Julie. I am sure they love you they...just show it in a wrong way." Regina said softly, knowing how much it could hurt when the child you cared for like your own believed you didn't love him or her.

"No she's right Regina." Neal now stepped in. "They really are afraid of her. They're good people, they really are, they're just not used to magic. The things Julie can do, they scare them. They sent her to doctors all over the country, but of course the moment they left Storybrooke with her nothing appeared to be different. I think that they would be all to happy to find out Julie's real parents have returned. They feel responsible for her and therefore won't leave Julie alone, so in a way it would be a relieve for them to not have to take care of her anymore."

"Please mom. You'll see, when you talk to them. They really are afraid of me, and because I felt like an outcast here I wasn't happy either. Things were bad for all three of us, but that can change now." Julie sighed and Regina couldn't help but smile because Julie called her mom.

"We will see what happens then." Regina said with a sigh. "I suggest you bring us to your parents then, and Rumple, could you please let the others know we're not coming back and close the portal afterwards?"

Gold nodded. "I will go get Belle – she had wanted to come with me in the first place – and close the portal afterwards." He agreed.

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Along with Gold, Granny and Ruby had too returned to Storybrooke. Granny missed the modern kitchen technology and Ruby wouldn't turn into a wolf anymore once she would leave Storybrooke, and that didn't sound that bad to her.

When Regina and David arrived at the house of Julie's foster parents they found that their daughter and Neal had been right. It didn't take the adults long to come to an agreement and within weeks everything was legally taken care of.

Regina, David and Julie found a house close to Henry, so they could visit him and his wife and new born son as often as they wanted. Snow rent an apartment not too far away from them and soon found a new prince charming.

Now nothing was binding Neal to Storybrooke anymore – Julie had found her happy ending - he too decided to move away from Storybrooke and went back to New York. There he and Emma soon revived their old relationship and Neal finally got the chance to rebuild the relationship with his father, who now lived with Belle in New York too.

Months later all received a postcard from Leroy and Nova, stating they were incredibly thankful for the fact that they had been given the opportunity to be together.

Too make this long story short, everyone eventually found back what they had lost, and they all lived happily ever after...

**The end.**


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